53

80

92

95

Acknowledgements

In the process of writing and researching
this thesis, many people have been of great assistance to me. I would first
like to thank the members of my family, who have supported me and my studies
in spite of my neglect, and my friends, who may no longer remember a time when "Taixu" and "Chinese Buddhist reform" were not a part of
their daily vocabulary. Also I would like to thank those who read drafts of
various chapters for their valuable comments and suggestions, and the staff
of the Seeley G. Mudd Library for tracking down so many articles by forgotten
authors in obscure journals. I would further like to thank Kuo-ming Sung for
his enthusiastic assistance in working through the Chinese sources. But most
of all I would like to thank my advisor, Dirck Vorenkamp, for his indispensable
guidance and his unflagging patience in the difficult phases of this project.

I reaffirm the Lawrence University
honor code

1

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter
I: Introduction

Chapter I

Introduction

Taixu: Admiration and Ire

One cannot study Chinese Buddhism in the
twentieth century without encountering the name Taixu. In the twenties, thirties,
and forties this renowned reformer was responsible for founding several institutions
of monastic education as well as several journals and publications. In these,
he wrote prolifically on many aspects of Buddhist as well as Western thought.
In his lifetime, he was almost universally praised abroad but was a controversial
figure in Buddhist circles at home. Ironically, within a few decades of his
death, the situation had reversed itself as he came to be universally praised
by his fellow Chinese Buddhists, while abroad his legacy was first contested
and then simply forgotten.

Some of the praise Taixu received from foreigners
in his lifetime was perhaps a bit excessive. As Paul Callahan notes in opening
of his article on Taixu, he was often written about in such laudatory terms
as "the St. Paul of Chinese Buddhism,"[1] "the very soul of present day Buddhist reform,"[2]
and "the leading spirit of the present effort to revive Buddhism."[3]
Although it is obvious that comparisons with St. Paul should be taken with a
fairly large grain of salt, Holmes Welch, author of the largest and most comprehensive
work on the Chinese Buddhist revival, took more serious objection. Writing in
1968, twenty-one years

"T'ai-hsü [Taixu] is widely regarded as
the most important figure in the history of modern Chinese Buddhism. But where
does his importance lie? For most of his life he was the leader of a small
dissident fraction. Until just before he died his ideas and activities had
little effect on the great majority of monks and devotees; and the effect
they might have had was excluded by the Communist victory."[4]

Welch goes on to spend much of the book contesting
Taixu's legacy, and, in Western academic circles at least, he seems to have
had the last word, for in the last thirty years no work of any length has been
done on the topic.

Though it is easy to see how Holmes Welch,
writing just after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, came to conclude
that "the effect [Taixu's ideas and activities] might have had was excluded
by the Communist victory," subsequent history has proven him quite wrong.
Several elements of Taixu's thought are today the dominant trends in Chinese
Buddhism in Taiwan.[5] Many of the most prominent
monks and nuns were students of Taixu, or are the students of his students,
including Shengyan of Dharma Drum; and Zhengyan of the Compassion and Salvation
Merit Society,[6] and Professor Yang Huinan of
Taiwan University.[7]

Furthermore, Taixu is perhaps even more
influential on the Mainland where Zhao Puchu, a former student of Taixu's, has
been head

of the Chinese Buddhist Association since the
early eighties. In 1983, at Zhao's suggestion, large portions of Taixu's thought
were adopted as the "guiding principle" of the Association. Thus today
the banner head of Sound of the Dharma (Fayin), the journal of the Chinese
Buddhist Association, includes an exhortation to take up "Buddhism among
people," a variation of a slogan of Taixu's, and carries articles referring
to this idea as the "crystallization of twentieth century Chinese Buddhist
wisdom."[8] Thus it seems that something about
the thought of this "leader of a small dissident faction" is still
compelling and a reexamination of the material is warranted. But first we might
ask who is this monk who aroused such admiration and ire? For that we must digress
briefly into biography.

The Life of Taixu

Taixu's humble origins gave no hint of the
prominence to which he would rise later in life. He was born Lü Peilin to a
poor family in Zhejiang in 1890.[9] His father
died when he was an infant leaving him to be raised by his mother and her family.
As a boy, he received a primary education in the Confucian classics from an
uncle and an initial exposure to Buddhism from his pious grandmother. She often
brought the boy along on her pilgrimages, which left a deep impression. When
he was fifteen years old his family's financial situation compelled him to seek
work as

Taixu studied first at Tiantong Temple under
Jichan and later at Yongfeng Temple in Ningbo. He sat in meditation, did koan
practice, listened to lectures, and read the sutras. When he was nineteen years
old, Taixu had an enlightenment experience while reading the Mahaprajnaparamita
Sutra. He later wrote:

"Suddenly my heart field was pure and
empty. In an instant I returned and regarded my body, my mind, and the material
world as illusions and shadows. The meaning of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra
brilliantly manifested itself."

Taixu claimed that after this experience he found
his studies suddenly came easily to him as though the meaning was already manifest
in his own heart.[11]

In his youth Taixu also became acquainted
with "revolutionary monks" who exposed him to the trends of reformist
thought that were popular at the time. Through them he came to read Kang Youwei,
Liang Qichao, Zhang Binglin, and others, as well as translations of Tolstoy,
Bakuin, and Marx.[12] In 1911 one such revolutionary
monk named Renshan involved Taixu in an ill fated attempt to take over Jinshan
Monastery, one of the great Chan centers of the day. The ultimate goal of the
plan was to turn the monastery into a modern monastic school. There is some
doubt as to the extent of Taixu's involvement, but it earned him the lifelong
hostility of the conservative faction of monks.[13]

10. "T'ai-hsü"
in Howard L. Boorman (ed.) Biographical Dictionary of Republican China
(New York: Columbia University Press 1971) 207. [Hereafter: Boorman] What became
of his family afterwards is unknown.

Taixu had already become a quite active
reformer even at this early point in his career. He had served at the Association
of Monastic Education in Ningbo, taught briefly at Putuo Shan, founded an Association
for the Education of Bhikkus in Guangzhou,[14]
and participated in the Buddhist Association (Fojiao xiejin hui) in 1912.
More radical than he would be in his later years, Taixu advocated controversial
reforms which were influenced by his readings in socialism. Perhaps because
of this, they met with a less than enthusiastic response and were never implemented.
As it turned out, a similar fate would befall many of his proposals.

Disappointed at the lukewarm reception of
his ideas, in 1914 Taixu went into seclusion (biguan) on Putuo Shan.[15]
For the next three years Taixu studied voraciously. In addition to deepening
his study of the sutras, sastras, and Confucian classics, he also studied most
of the available Western works on logic, philosophy, psychology, and applied
science, and also began his study of the Weishi school of Buddhism. Taixu wrote
prolifically during this period as well, penning over ten works on a wide range
of topics including education, evolution, Mozi, sangha reform, and the
Human Vehicle (Ren cheng).[16] When Taixu
emerged from his seclusion in 1917 at the age of 29, the basic foundations of
his thought had been laid. Although thereafter he frequently revised his proposals
and fine tuned his theories, his basic direction remained unchanged.[17]

For the rest of his life Taixu was one of
the most active and outspoken leaders of the Buddhist revival in China. He traveled
throughout the country numerous times lecturing on his views regarding Buddhism
and the modern world, and even went abroad to lecture in Europe, America, and
Southeast Asia. He established several Buddhist academies to train the next
generation of monastic leadership and several lay societies to cultivate Buddhism
among the urban laity. Taixu's writings, dealing with a wide variety of subjects
from sangha reform to science, were numerous and "very popular with
the younger generation."[18] Despite his
frenetic activity, China in the twenties, thirties, and forties was a difficult
time to start a movement and many projects failed, some due to financial difficulty,
some due to war, and some due to the opposition of the conservative Buddhist
establishment. Towards the end of his life Taixu wrote a "History of the
Failure of my Buddhist Revolution." In it he said that problems:

"arising from individual's temperaments
were certainly many, and those arising from circumstances were also not few...
but I remain confident that my theory and inspiration had their strong points,
and if they had received implementation and obtained people of sufficient
leadership, I definitely could have established a Buddhist scholarship and
system appropriate to modern China."[19]

Taixu died in 1947, two years before the founding
of the People's Republic, with many of his dreams still unrealized. After his
cremation, followers sifted through the ashes to collect relics which reportedly
included

crystalline sarira of various sizes and
colors and his unburned heart.[20]

Taixu's Legacy and Previous Scholarship

Since his death, scholarly treatments of
Taixu's life and work have been few and far between. To date, only two works
deal with him at any length and while they both have some merit, they also have
serious limitations. The Chinese Buddhist Revival by Holmes Welch, published
in 1968, is the largest and most recent work. Welch presents an institutional
and social history of the revival as a whole, and spends one chapter and a few
other sections dealing specifically with Taixu. Welch uses interviews as well
as written records in his account and thus presents much valuable information
not found anywhere else. Unfortunately his work is marred by a serious traditionalist
bias which leads him to distort his account of Taixu. Welch takes the view and
practices of more traditional Buddhist monasticism, exemplified for him by Jinshan,
as a normative standard and considers any deviation from this standard a corruption.

Welch's conception of his mission in writing
his scholarly trilogy on contemporary Buddhism was, by his own admission, more
than a historical one. He openly refers to Chinese Buddhism as "the hero"
of his books and to himself as righting the wrongs done to Buddhism by earlier
writers.[21] But Welch was not simply championing
Buddhism as a whole but a particular kind of Buddhism. He clearly reveals his
stance when he pontificates that Taixu's "serious failing was that he did
not seem to have

considered deeply enough on whether, if Chinese
Buddhism was reformed in the manner he proposed, it would still be Buddhist
or even Chinese."[22] While Holmes Welch
had obviously concluded that it would not, what is or is not true Buddhism
is not a historical question.

Welch does not stop at questioning Taixu's
orthodoxy, but goes on to question his motives. He tells us at one point that "it would be wrong to picture Taixu as nothing but an unscrupulous self-promoter,"[23]
with the obvious implication that although an "unscrupulous self-promoter,"
might not be all that Taixu is, he is certainly that. At any rate that seems
to be the only motivation that Welch is interested in. He says that Taixu "had
a flair for promotion -- particularly self promotion,"[24]
and attributes his actions to a hunger for "status."[25]
No grounds are ever given for these assertions, and little attention is given
to the possibility that Taixu may have sincerely believed that his reforms were
necessary to save Buddhism.

If the evidence presented thus far is insufficient
to establish Welch's traditionalist bias, we may consider a remark he made in
a lecture given at Wellesley College. On that occasion, he said, "Does
it sound as if I am against religious reformers, against modernization -- as
if I would like to keep the Chinese old-fashioned and superstitious? On the
balance, I would."[26]

The picture of Taixu presented in The
Chinese Buddhist Revival is also distorted by Welch's methodology. A strict
institutional and social

22. Welch
51. Here Welch seems to be following Liang Souming who made a nearly identical
accusation in Lun dongxi wenhua.

historical approach such as Welch's is perfectly
legitimate and useful in examining the revival as a whole but it leaves something
to be desired in examining Taixu specifically. As I shall later argue, Taixu's
thought and his reform program are intimately tied to one another. Holmes Welch
makes only a brief, and somewhat contemptuous, nod to Taixu's thought and deals
almost exclusively with his institutional work. Divorced from its theoretical
underpinnings it comes across as simply a string of organizations, many of which
failed or only ever existed on paper, and thus furthers the impression that
Taixu was just an opportunistic "self-promoter."

The other major work on Taixu, Paul Callahan's
1952 paper, "T'ai-hsü and the New Buddhist Movement," is better than
Welch in some respects but is still quite limited. Callahan focuses fairly closely
on Taixu himself and begins to move toward exploring the connections between
Taixu's thought and his reform program but in the end falls short of putting
all the pieces together. He recognizes the importance of Taixu's ethical emphasis
but simply dismisses his synthetic approach to non-Buddhist schools of thought.[27]
Although Callahan isn't as biased in his treatment as is Holmes Welch and refrains
from the personal attacks which characterize Welch's work, in the end he too
is dismissive of Taixu's contribution. Callahan credits Taixu's popularity to
his "imaginative" and "inspiring" apologetics rather than
any "originality or innovation."[28]
Again, in light of the durability that Taixu's ideas have shown and the current
influence they enjoy, a different approach to the material seems justified.

A Reexamination and Different
Approach

When we begin to explore the primary materials
available for ourselves, we find that our problems are compounded by several
factors. Material in English is scant and much of what is available was written
by missionaries who, though they were sympathetic and fair, often had an imperfect
grasp of Buddhist doctrine and terminology. The even scantier English material
by Chinese writers has a similar problem. They were generally quite familiar
with Buddhism, but often had an imperfect grasp of English which makes their
work occasionally confusing and sometimes simply impenetrable. To find much
important information there is no alternative but to seek materials in Chinese.
Encountering the works of Taixu himself, however, one quickly gains new sympathy
for the past unfortunates who tried to translate his work into English. In his
work the usual problems of technical vocabulary are compounded by a widely varying
writing style and an idiosyncratic use of terms. To obtain a clear gloss on
these terms, one often has to turn to secondary Chinese sources. Thus a clear
and coherent picture of Taixu's thought and activities requires a thorough examination
of a large body of material.

The approach to these materials taken here
will be predominantly intellectual history. I will focus on drawing out the
conceptual connections between the various elements of his thought and between
his thought and his reform program. I am concerned then with institutions (e.g.
lay societies, Buddhist academies) primarily as they relate to the broader framework
of his thought, rather than as social entities in their own right. One outgrowth
of this approach is that the significance of a given reform does not lie in
its success or failure as an institution. Taixu's

11

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter I: Introduction

unimplemented plans are potentially as important
as his more concrete achievements for this inquiry, because its purpose is not
to rate Taixu a success or failure, but to form a comprehensive picture of how
the elements of his thought relate to one another.

The guiding heuristic of this investigation
is the assumption that every thinker has a problem or set of problems which
his or her thought addresses. This seems to be a particularly useful approach
to take in regards to a social reformer such as Taixu who was not solely concerned
with theoretical matters, but also placed great emphasis on the application
of his ideas. Thus my inquiry begins with the set of problems and plan of action
that Taixu identifies in his writings, and then seeks to determine whether or
not his thought and reform program actually sought to address those problems,
and if so, how.

Of course, it is conceivable that Taixu's
writings and activities would have no relation to the problems he identifies,
i.e. that he said one thing and did another. But if so, the evidence will illustrate
this and thus the approach here is a falsifiable one. Indeed, since I was only
able to scratch the surface of Taixu's writings,[29]
there is still the possibility that further research would refute or modify
my thesis. Furthermore, the problems and plan of action identified in this inquiry
were described as such by Taixu. Therefore, this too is a descriptive and thus
falsifiable assertion.

This approach in examining the available
materials is viable for

29. The
reasons for this are fourfold: first, Taixu was a prolific writer and his collected
works comprise several volumes; second, aside from a few lectures, none of his
writings have been translated; third, the original works in Chinese are difficult
to come by; and fourth, due to the current limitations of my language skills,
reading these works in the original language is a time consuming endeavor.

12

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter I: Introduction

several reasons. First, I have a sufficient amount
of material written by Taixu, biographers (who were also followers), and contemporary
foreign observers (sympathetic missionaries, and a few academics). Many of these
sources enumerate, with little or no variation, the main aspects of his thought,
and in my research I have found information on each. Second, these sources are
generally credible. Most were written by people who had contact with Taixu and
were familiar with his writings, or who were his followers themselves. Finally,
there is a high degree of corroboration amongst the sources.

There are several approaches that I will
avoid in my inquiry, and so, several questions that I will not ask. I am not
doing social or cultural history. Furthermore, save by way of introduction,
I will not deal with other currents in Buddhist circles at the time or with
the political or economic context, except insofar as Taixu dealt with them in
his system of thought. Nor will I inquire as to the social factors which fostered
the rise of the movement. In addition, I am not doing psychohistory, and so,
this inquiry will not ponder Taixu's "deeper" motivations. It is his
declared motivations that concern us here.

I also wish to avoid the unnecessarily normative
judgments and essentialist definitions which marred Welch's study. I will not
seek to determine whether or not there was really a revival. My use of
that term will be simply a convenient and commonly accepted designation for
the events in question. Also I will not attempt to determine whether Taixu's
reforms were really Buddhist. I will refer to them as Buddhist because
he conceived of them as such. Finally, I will not make any assessment as to
whether or not Buddhism was actually in decline or the sangha was

13

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter I: Introduction

actually corrupt. The significant fact here is
that Taixu considered this to be the case.

In fact, "what Taixu considered to
be the case" is precisely the object of our inquiry. It is my contention
that, in surveying the world around him, Taixu saw two sets of problems -- first
with Buddhism and second with the modern world. To address these problems he
formulated a plan of action which we might consider a mission statement. The
plan comes with a few variations but its basic points are as follows: reduce
Mahayana Buddhism to its essence to bring East and West, Tradition and Modernity
into harmony, and apply this to present day conditions.[30]
Through this threefold plan, Taixu sought to rectify and renew Buddhism, and
by establishing and spreading this renewed Buddhism heal the wounds of the modern
world.

Chapter II

Problems

Problems with Buddhism

Taixu saw several problems with the Buddhism
of his day. He found many Buddhists -- both monastic and lay -- to be superstitious.
Although on the surface that appears to be a clear enough criticism, "superstition"
is a rather ambiguous category of Taixu's thought. Idolatry was included,[31]
but the grounds for its inclusion are not entirely clear. The fault seems to
derive, at least in part, from what he felt was a mistaken notion of the nature
and role of bodhisattvas. In his view, they should not be seen as "idols
of mud and wood" to be worshiped but "great minded" beings to
be emulated.[32] One might guess that superstition
referred to the belief in the supernatural, but Taixu occasionally affirmed
the existence of such phenomena. In one essay, for instance, he treats the six
paths of rebirth and their various associated beings as literal realities firmly
ensconced in their proper place in the cosmology.[33]
We might conjecture then that the problem is perhaps not supernatural elements
per se, but rather an unsophisticated approach to them.

The other problems Taixu saw with Buddhism
were less ambiguous. First, he charged that Buddhists were otherworldly, that
is to say, they were insufficiently interested in social service and education.
Speaking specifically of the sangha, he claimed that their services to
the

broader community were limited to masses for
the dead. Second, he claimed that although monks divide up into various schools
with particular aims, they consistently fail to realize these aims. Third, he
contended that the sangha was too reclusive, which led them to be slighted
by the government and the ruling classes. Fourth, he argued that the monks of
his day lacked the knowledge of the contemporary world necessary to appeal to
modern minds.[34] Finally, he argued that in
Buddhism, as in China in general, "familialism" was far too powerful.
In his opinion, the superimposition of the Chinese family structure onto the
sangha had turned it from a community of "sons of the Buddha"
to a group of factious clans. He felt this led to nepotism and private ownership
of property which ought to be held by all Buddhists in common. This in turn
created resistance to reform and an irrational distribution of resources.[35]

We can see from such accusations why Taixu
was unpopular with some of his fellows. His critique amounted to a virtual indictment
of Chinese Buddhism, especially the monastic tradition. But it is important
to note that although in one sense this is a call to radical change, in another
sense it is comparatively superficial. Taixu did not advocate disbanding the
sangha or tossing out the canon, indeed, as we shall see this is the
last thing he would want to do. The problems Taixu identified in Buddhism are
primarily institutional and required restructuring and reorientation rather
than fundamental revision.

Problems with the Modern World

The problems with the modern world, on the
other hand, went straight to the core of human nature. Taixu delivered a blistering
critique on the modern world. In one lecture, he even said "it is not too
much to say that modern civilization is the crystallization of man's animal
passions and sensual desires.[36] Much of his
critique seems to derive from his reaction to the first World War. Writing on
his early life, Taixu said,

"The European War broke out. Added to
the rottenness of the inward man was the brutal struggle of the outward world.
I was convinced of the magnitude of the human calamity, which like a wagonload
of hay on fire could not be extinguished with a cupful of water."[37]

To Taixu, as to many of his countrymen, this
tragedy testified to the bankruptcy of Western civilization.[38]

In Taixu's eyes much of the blame fell on
science. Although it had contributed great things to people's material well
being and knowledge of the universe, it had also created instruments capable
of tremendous destruction. More importantly, it undercut the traditional morality
that might have constrained the use of those instruments. In Taixu's view the
discoveries of science made a theistic worldview utterly untenable, thus the
ethical systems which were predicated upon such a worldview no longer held.[39]
With theistic religion rendered impotent, human life had

According to Taixu, this plays into an older
problem of humankind, "our narrow egoistic desires," which on a large
scale manifests as factionalism. As Taixu explains it, "parties are formed
for the defense of common interests so that the whole world may be said to be
composed of coalitions of sorts, which are always on alert, and whose object
is to use every possible means to suppress their rivals."[41]
These factions or coalitions include nations, races, and classes, and their
constant struggle led Taixu to characterize the modern world as a "world
of strifes [sic]." As if this alone were not enough of a problem, added
to the sufferings that people inflict upon each other are the natural calamities
which spread suffering without regard for factional affiliation.[42]

Thus in Taixu's eyes the modern world, in which
sentient beings had grown ever more powerful without growing more wise, stood
at the edge of destruction, in desperate need of salvation. The problem Taixu
identifies here is fundamental to human nature and essentially moral. Science
gave humanity great destructive power and at the same time ate away at the foundations
of the theistic morality which might have constrained its use. Thus as Taixu
saw it, people gave free reign to their self-centered, egoistic passions and
unleashed unprecedented destruction. Significantly, these self-centered, egoistic
passions are something that Buddhism has always claimed to be able cure.

42. "Statement"
177, see also Y. Y. Tsu, "Trends of Religion and Thought in China,"
New Orient II (1933): 42.

18

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter
III: Reduction

Chapter III

Reduction

Given this longstanding claim, it should
come as no surprise then to find that Taixu began to address these problems
by "reducing Mahayana Buddhism to its essence." Like many religious
thinkers, Taixu based the other elements of his thought upon his metaphysics.
In his view, "the essence of Buddhist doctrine consists in an eternal,
unlimited, and absolute conception of the spiritual and material phenomena of
the universe."[43] What this conception
is exactly is not specified here but in other sources he described Thusness
(zhenru), a typical East Asian formulation of emptiness, in quite similar
terms. In a piece from Sound of the Sea Tide translated by Pratt, Taixu tells
us "that quality of changelessness or sameness in all things, places, and
events, is given the name Chen Ru [zhenru]." He continues,
saying that:

"it is conceived as... perfect emptiness,
yet an emptiness which is the only reality; as the true unity... the source
of all things... There is no time or place which has only Chen Ru and
has not mind or matter. And there is no thought or material particle which
is not Chen Ru... [It] is eternally the true nature of all things."[44]

This is also consonant with other passages
in which Taixu identifies the essence of Buddhism as its view of the unity of
all phenomena through the law of cause and effect.[45]
Considering the amount of ire that Taixu incurred from Welch and the conservative
monastic establishment,

43. Taixu, "The History of Buddhism and Its Recent Tendencies," T'ai-hsü: His
Life and Teachings, ed. Chou Hsiang-kuang (Allahabad: Indo-Chinese Literature
Publications 1957) 22. [Hereafter: "History"]

the most surprising thing about these passages
is what an uncontroversial stance they take. But then again, perhaps it is not
so surprising. Taixu was after all a Mahayana Buddhist monk, well read in the
Mahayana sutras and sastras, and thoroughly versed in the doctrines of the Huayan,
Tiantai, and Weishi schools. Accordingly we might have expected this sort of
an identification. Also, we might recall here that Taixu had his enlightenment
experience while reading the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, which deals specifically
with the doctrine of emptiness.

Though Taixu most often spoke of emptiness
as Thusness, he also occasionally made use of other terms and methods of explanation.
He was particularly interested in the Weishi, or Mind Only, school of Buddhism
and thus in some cases, we see emptiness elaborated specifically in terms of
Weishi metaphysics. For example, in a speech given on "the meaning of Buddhism,"
Taixu asserted that the teachings of the Buddha fall under four headings: first,
sentient life emerges in cycles from the alayavijnana and has done so
since beginningless time; second, all things arise from consciousness; third,
all beings are without a self; and fourth "the universe has no independent,
objective existence."[46] Thus, although
Taixu varied in his explanations, he consistently affirmed emptiness as the
essence of the Mahayana.

The significance of this choice becomes
clearer in light of what he did not identify as the essence. He did not choose
a practice, such as chan or reciting dharani, nor did he choose
an attitude, such as piety. Instead Taixu saw a doctrine as the essence of Mahayana
Buddhism. This gave his entire system of thought and reform program a distinct
intellectual tilt

and elite orientation. If the essence is this
rather abstruse doctrine, then Taixu's Buddhism was primarily for those with
the intellectual tools to understand it. This also manifested itself in Taixu's
treatment of Buddhist history. In his account, the spread of Buddhism across
Asia was treated solely in terms of the spread of doctrine. He saw it as a drama
in which the primary actors were the "intellectual classes." For instance,
the reason the Buddha resorted to the upaya of the Lesser Vehicle was
that "the intellectual classes of India were absorbed in the search for
atman,"[47] whereas, in contrast, those
same classes in China have "always risen to the majestic heights of the
true doctrine.[48] Taixu's identification of
the essence of the Mahayana will prove significant both in its narrower sense,
as Thusness, and in its more general sense, as doctrine.

Taixu's identification of doctrine as the
essence of Buddhism also had an impact on his conception of the Buddha and the
bodhisattvas. Taixu would strip them of their supernatural aspects and focus
instead on their realization of doctrine. As a result, Taixu's Sakyamuni lies
closer to the realized sage of the Pali canon than the cosmic savior of the
Lotus Sutra. The Buddha is not a "supernatural being" but rather
someone "who has realized the truth of all existence, and having conformed
his life to it, incites us by his compassion to do likewise."[49]
Sakyamuni is a savior only in the sense of being an exemplar.[50]
All beings can, and indeed eventually must, become Buddhas themselves, though
in recorded history only Gautama has thus far been successful.[51]
Likewise, bodhisattvas

should be viewed not as saviors but as "great
people of thought," and this too is a status to which all may aspire, for
in Taixu's view "however many of us that [sic] can develop this
sort of great mindedness, just as many are Bodhisattvas. But only as one understands
and puts into practice Buddhism can he come to be called a Bodhisattva."[52]
Taixu thus gives the understanding of doctrine a key role in religious practice,
and also diminishes the intercessory role of Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The most important aspect to note in regards
to Taixu's reduction is its universality. This is a point which he consistently
stresses. Thusness is not simply one doctrine among many, but "a true conception
of the Universe and of all living beings."[53]
Nothing is excluded and therefore it is applicable to everything. And Taixu
did, in fact, apply this concept of Thusness to everything, including fields
beyond the scope of traditional Buddhism.

Chapter IV

Harmonization

Upon this metaphysical foundation of Thusness,
Taixu attempted to construct a harmonization of "East and West, Tradition
and Modernity." This may be conveniently -- if not altogether cleanly --
divided into his attempt to harmonize elements of Western modernity with Buddhism
and his attempt to harmonize Buddhism with modernity. The former may in turn
be conveniently divided into his treatment of forms of knowledge and his treatment
of forms of political ideology.

Harmonizing Modernity with Buddhism:
Forms of Knowledge

Taixu classified what he saw as the primary
forms of knowledge in a hierarchy ranging from merely animal awareness to the
perfect awareness of an enlightened Buddha. Between these two poles fall the
various Buddhist and non-Buddhist forms of knowledge. Included in this scheme
were "theoretical forms of knowledge" which Taixu tried to bring into
harmony with the Dharma. These "theoretical forms of knowledge" came
in four varieties -- scientific, philosophical, religious, and moral. To summarize
briefly, science is distinguished by the stress it puts on perception and experience
as well as analysis and synthesis. In contrast, philosophy relies on reasoned
thought and inference. Religion posits the existence of a supreme being and
seeks to attain truth through supernatural means, while moral forms of knowledge
seek truth through

23

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

disciplining the heart and mind.[54]
The whole hierarchy may be represented by the diagram on the following page:[55]

The most important thing to note about this
diagram is that the knowledge of the Buddha is firmly ensconced at the top of
the hierarchy. The knowledge which distinguishes a Buddha or a bodhisattva,
according to Taixu, is the knowledge of doctrine, most importantly the essence
of that doctrine, Thusness. This is the standard against which Taixu measured
all other forms of knowledge and found them wanting. According to Taixu, one
can reach the elementary truths of Buddhism through common knowledge (sense
perception) and learning, but only the Buddhist scholar, through sila
(ethics), samadhi (concentration), and prajna (wisdom), can approach
ultimate Truth.[56] Nevertheless, the other forms
are not without their merits, and can be salvaged by an application of Buddhadharma.

Of all the non-Buddhist forms of knowledge,
Taixu accords the most merit to science saying that "under the three headings
of (1) the scientist, (2) the Bodhisattva, (3) the fully Conscious One-truth
is really approached."[57] He views science
as the highest form of theoretical knowledge. As noted, its defining traits
are the stress it lays on perception and experience, and the use it makes of
analysis and synthesis.[58] In his view, science
proceeds first by specialization and delineation of particular fields. The scientists
in those fields then make observations, "ascertain the nature of the object"
of study, and verify their observations. From this they then formulate hypotheses
and experiments. If the results of these experiments are consistently repeatable
then they must be accepted as

56. "Learning"
66. This lecture makes no mention of what to make of the other Buddhist
forms of knowledge. As we shall see, he did discuss this topic at length elsewhere,
though he uses somewhat different categories.

scientific law. Taixu grants that "when
its methods are accurate, cautious, and thorough, then [science] can be considered
to be irreproachable."[59] Thus science
is granted authority in describing the apparent nature of the phenomenal world.
Its methods of experimental induction and theoretical deduction serve to correct
superstition and arbitrary reasoning, as well as probe the secrets of nature
and contribute to humanity's material well being.[60]
Using such methods even "the Buddhist scholar is aided in his research."[61]

Science, however, does not and cannot have
the last word. As Taixu sees it, it suffers from two limitations inherent in
its very nature. First, it is always predicated upon hypotheses and thus can
never reach ultimate understanding. Reasoning based on hypotheses can never
produce the "direct perception" which leads to "the truth of
the Universe."[62] Second,

"scientific method in its study of the
natural world organizes and classifies knowledge through careful analysis...
But... when an object or living organism is dissected or analyzed it has already
lost its original nature [yuan xing]. It is all right to analyze the
universe and human life, but the thing analyzed is actually a complete whole,
or a living organism. Science cannot analyze [the whole]"[63]

Thus in Taixu's view, if we wish to understand
things as a whole, science is insufficient, and so, falls short of the universal
conception of existence found in Buddhism.

shortcoming-scientists' overconfidence in their
own method. This leads them to ignore the Dharma,[64]
and myopically attempt to "improve [their] instruments rather than [their]
inner vision."[65] Thus they never achieve
the direct insight necessary to see the entire universe as it really is, i.e.
Thusness. Therefore despite its authority in some areas, science is seemingly
limited to an incomplete understanding of reality.

As Taixu saw it, however. Buddhism has the
potential to remedy this lack, because it is completely compatible with science
since it is based not upon an untenable belief in a creator god, but upon an "eternal, unlimited, and absolute conception of the spiritual and material
phenomena of the Universe."[66] Buddhism
alone among religions "does not contradict scientific truth but rather
confirms it."[67] In addition to this more
abstract compatibility, Taixu attempted to show that many contemporary scientific
theories confirmed specific points of Buddhist doctrine. In his eyes, modern
astronomy confirmed the Buddhist cosmology with its millions of worlds existing
in limitless space and time, and Einstein's theory of relativity confirmed Weishi
idealism.[68] Taixu felt that Buddhism could
even directly inform scientific theory, as seen in an article in which he argued
that a controversy in psychology could be resolved by the teachings of the Surangama
Sutra.[69]

69. Taixu. "Xingweixue yu weigenlun ji weishenlun," Haichaoyin wenku 1:1
(1933): 78-84. For further discussion of the connection between Buddhism and
psychology see: Taixu. "Xingweixue yu xinlixue." Haichaoyin wenku
1:1 (1933): 60-78. In seeking to connect science and the Dharma, Taixu occasionally
stretched his point, as in a discussion of evolution in which he appears to
conflate biological evolution with transmigration ("Principles" 34).

28

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

Ultimately despite its valuable contributions
and points of correspondence with Buddhadharma, the proper role of science is
as an adjunct to Buddhism which can complete its deficiencies by providing a
more comprehensive view of the universe. In Taixu's view. Buddhism can explain
all the truths investigated by science,[70] but
the truths of the Dharma are beyond its scope.[71]
Thus although Buddhism completes science, "science... can never be the
main support for Buddhism although it may act as a valuable auxiliary and much
may be expected from uniting the two methods of investigation."[72]
For all its merits, science remains firmly subordinate to Buddhism.

Taixu takes a similar tactic in dealing
with Western philosophy, although his treatment of this subject is somewhat
less consistent than his treatment of science. At times he gives it credit for
approaching the truths of Buddhism, while at other times he treats it as little
more than a two thousand year mistake. For instance, in a lecture given in France
he described the entire history of Western philosophy as a sort of progressive
descent into error. As Taixu saw it. Western philosophy began with the Greeks
who sought principally to investigate noumenon. Over the centuries, however,
philosophy gradually digressed from this original and proper aim and fell into
endless controversies, impeding any real progress. According to Taixu, the origin
of the fault lay not in the attempt to penetrate the nature of noumenon, but
in the methods used. Noumenon cannot be known by mere analysis and debate. It
can be apprehended only

intuitively through meditation and awakening.[73]
This is the same criticism that was leveled at science, though philosophy is
given less credit as a useful mode of knowledge.

Because Buddhism takes the true realization
of noumenon, i.e. Thusness, as its starting point, its teaching is a "clear
perception of things freed from all illusion" whereas "philosophy
is an erroneous perception based on illusions."[74]
The core of Western philosophy's problem lies in what Taixu sees as its point
of departure -- the assumption "that the men and worlds before our eyes
are a reality." From this erroneous axiom philosophers attempt to identify
the "original substance" which undergirds that reality; sometimes
identifying it as Mind, sometimes as Matter, sometimes as a Mind-Matter dualism.
Ultimately, "in thinking of this sort, vagueness and error enter in at
the very beginning; hence, howsoever [philosophers] search [they] cannot come
to the truth."[75] Thus Buddhism returns
philosophy to its original aim by correcting the fundamental errors found in
philosophy's method and assumptions.

Elsewhere Taixu was more generous regarding
philosophy. He saw some schools of Western philosophy current in his day as
beginning to approach the truths of Buddhism. As he understood it, Neo-Kantianism,
New Realism, Pragmatism, Creative Evolution, and Emergent Evolution all took
the nonexistence of substance as their point of departure. What then is the
nature of the phenomena we see before us? According to New Realism they are "logical constructs" (translated into Chinese as lunli

goucheng), according to Pragmatism, "intellectual
symbolic constructs" (zhishi diaocheng). In Taixu's view, this parallels
almost word for word two terms used in the Weishi school of Buddhism, respectively, "that which is produced by causes" (yinyuan suocheng) and "that
which is manifested by consciousness" (weishi suoxian).[76]
Even conceding this, however. Western philosophy is still only groping blindly
at what Buddhism saw clearly from the very beginning -- the emptiness of phenomenon.
It can hardly approach, let alone rival, the truths of Buddhism.

Likewise, non-Buddhist religions are given
credit for approaching truth in some respects but in other respects have fallen
into serious error. Taixu revealed the core of his view on other religions in
his gloss of the word used to translate that Western term into Chinese -- zongjiao.
To analyze the phenomenon, Taixu broke the term up into its component characters.
Zong refers to the inner spiritual experience had by the religious practitioner.
This is common to all religions and thus the experiential aspect of religion
is universally legitimate. Jiao refers to the ways in which this experience
is explained to others though doctrines and creeds. This is the aspect which
varies from religion to religion and which can be in error.[77]

Although Taixu conceded this core of truth
to all religions, he thought that in the case of Christianity error predominated.
In an essay entitled "There is No Need to Either Reform or Destroy the
Christian Church," Taixu argued that the religion has "run its course
and is dead."[78]

In his view it is fundamentally flawed in that
it is founded upon three core superstitions: God,[79]
the soul, and Christ. In light of Thusness, these three doctrines are utterly
untenable."[80] If all things arise according
to the laws of karma, where is there room for a creator? If all things are impermanent
and empty, how can one have a soul? And if one's salvation rests on one's own
understanding of the Buddhist doctrine, how can Jesus save? Taixu not only found
Christianity distinctly inferior in its metaphysics, he also felt that it overemphasizes
faith at the expense of understanding.[81]

Despite these serious inadequacies, Taixu
did feel that Christianity has some strong points. He advised his students to
study the religion, because it has some very "good and helpful ideas"
particularly in regard to "true compassion and self denial."[82]
Taixu also thought highly of Christian institutions such as hospitals and schools,
however, he saw these sorts of endeavors as, at their root, common to all religions
and not the product of a genius unique to Christianity.[83]
Thus what little merit Taixu saw in Christianity was, like science and philosophy,
subordinate to that of Buddhism. And significantly, what he saw as meritorious
was the religion's ethical teachings and the institutions though which it had
applied them.

The final category, moral forms of knowledge,
which included

79. Taixu
actually conceded the existence of the Christian God, just not as Christians conceive
of him. Taixu placed him in Indra's heaven atop Mount Sumeru approximately on
a level with the Heavenly Kings, but below the "high ones" of Taoism
and Brahmanism whom he placed in the Antariksa heaven and Brahmalokas (Taixu 284).

Confucianism and Taoism, received better treatment
than Christianity because as Taixu saw it, they deal primarily with ethics and
avoided doctrines such as the "soul" or a creator god. Taixu himself
emphasized ethics, as we shall see, thus moral knowledge is compatible with
the Dharma and can even act to prepare people for the higher doctrines of Buddhism.
For instance, Confucianism's emphasis on "right conduct" and "adjusting
to circumstances"[84] paved the way for
the introduction of Buddhism to China. Its humanitarian attitude prepared the
way for an understanding of the Bodhisattva doctrine. Taoism also played a role
in the introduction of Buddhism, in that its naturalistic philosophy prepared
the Chinese character for a "simple and disinterested way of life."[85]

Taixu held that Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism
could also cooperate productively in the establishment of modern Chinese culture.
This endeavor would be "established upon a foundation of Buddhist faith."
It would "use Laozi and Zhuangzi to solve worldliness," and "take
Confucius and Mencius as a model for the whole of human morals," and in
the end "return to Buddhism to free people's natures."[86]
Exactly what Taixu meant by this and how he thought it would work in practice
is unclear. The important thing to note is that these three could aid in the
task of renewing China, but only by being firmly subordinated to Buddhism. This
brings our discussion around to the more practical systems of Taixu's day, which
were often employed in hopes of effecting this renewal.

Harmonizing Modernity with Buddhism:
Political Ideology

In early twentieth century China a multitude
of different systems were being bandied about as the solution to the numerous
ills which beset the country as it entered the modern era. Constitutional monarchism,
anarchism, communism and many other "isms" all had their adherents.
In Taixu's opinion, however, although such ideologies sought to alleviate suffering
and institute just government, they were in a certain sense doomed to failure
because,

"these 'isms' have been worked out by
minds that have not been perfectly free from the three basic evils... Any
remedy or means of cure for the present troubled world worked out by minds
which are not free from such evils will only increase the troubles instead
of checking or preventing them."[87]

These basic evils are the "egoistic passions"
that Taixu saw running unchecked in the modern world. According to Taixu, the
way to rid "isms" of these evils, of course, was Dharma. Thus, like
the various modes of knowledge, political ideologies also find their completion
and rectification in Buddhism.

Of this mass of political systems, the only
one to become the official guiding ideology of the nation in Taixu's lifetime
was Sanminism (Sanmin Zhuyi). This system took as its foundation the "Three People's Principles" of Sun Yat-sen: People's Livelihood, Democracy,
and Nationalism. Of these three, People's Livelihood (minsheng zhuyi)
was a rather vague principle often identified with socialism, although Sun Yat-sen
himself disavowed class struggle and supported limited capitalism and

land redistribution. Democracy (minquan zhuyi,
literally "People's Rights") entailed popular sovereignty and an administrative
apparatus modeled after American Progressivism. The final principle. Nationalism
(minzu zhuyi), meant first an anti-Manchu, then later an anti-imperialist
stance."[88]

Although these principles seem positive
on the face of it, Dayuan, one of the most prominent writers in Taixu's journal
Sound of the Sea Tide, wrote:

"The principle of Peoples' Livelihood
of the San-min-chu-i [Sanmin Zhuyi] lies in seeking clothing,
food, and shelter sufficient to daily life; but this develops the poison of
desire. The principle of Democracy lies in strong competition sufficient to
sustain life; but this develops the poison of anger. The principle of Nationalism
incites one nation to oppose another people; this develops the poison of ignorance."

To cure these three poisons Sanminism needs to
be "Buddhicized" (fohua). As Taixu saw it. Buddhism must serve
as the "guide," Sanminism, the attendant.[89]
Precisely what this means or how it would be accomplished is unclear from the
materials available, but it is clear that, according to Taixu, to actually uphold
its three principles, Sanminism must be corrected by Buddhadharma.

Sanminism's chief ideological competitor
for the hearts of the people was socialism. As Taixu saw it, the chief aim of
socialism was to

89. Callahan
166. Given the clear parallel between this statement and Taixu's statement about "isms" and the venue in which it was presented it seems reasonable
to take it as a reflection of Taixu's opinion as well as Dayuan's. Further,
Taixu himself said that "Buddhism is the ultimate goal of Sanminism and
Sanminism is Buddhism put into practice" [C. Yates McDaniel, "Buddhism
Makes its Peaces with the New Order," Asia 35:9 (Sept 1935): 541].

35

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

break up the capitalist monopoly on the means
of production and thereby ease the sufferings of the proletariat, whose position
had been weakened in the modern world as machinery eclipsed labor in importance.[90]
Although Taixu approved of this aim insofar as it arises from compassion for
the laboring classes, he had serious qualms regarding socialism's methods. Taixu
saw it as a mistake to focus all attention upon the environment and ignore the
individual because inequality arises from greed as much as economics. Further,
he felt that socialism ignores the workings of karma. In his view, the different
classes are reaping different karmic rewards and retributions, and more importantly,
according to the law of karma, a bloody revolution will bear bloody fruit which
could easily lead to warlordism or mere mob-rule. Finally, socialism makes the
mistake of attempting to eliminate "mine" without first eliminating "me." Since, from the Buddhist perspective, grasping at objects as
one's own derives from the illusion of ego, it is impossible to truly eliminate
private property without destroying the false sense of self. Accordingly, socialism
merely removes the material objects while leaving the fundamental mistake uncorrected.[91]

Like other systems of thought, socialism
can be rehabilitated by an application of Buddhism. Taixu held that rather than
focusing solely on the environment, socialists must begin to correct individuals.
This can be accomplished by upholding the five precepts and practicing the ten
virtuous deeds, and by recognizing that the roots of all outer conditions lie
in the mind. Most importantly, the ultimate obstacle, the illusory self,

must be cut off and overcome.[92]
On the balance, Taixu felt socialism's "hopes are virtuous. But although
it has this aim, its actions and practices are not quite right... [It requires
Buddhadharma to] elucidate selflessness, impermanence, suffering, and non-purity."[93]

Thus we see yet again that in Taixu's vision
socialism -- like science, philosophy, religion, moral knowledge, and Sanminism
-- is essentially compatible with and perfected by Buddhism. Though all have
their usefulness and merits, they lack the comprehensive view of the Buddhadharma
and must be corrected by it in order to achieve their aims. At this point, we
might begin to suspect that the compatibility and subordination of these various
systems of thought is of greater priority for Taixu than their individual traits
and characteristics which he occasionally gives rather limited attention. In
harmonizing the modern world with Buddhism, Taixu's priority was harmonization
and subordination, in harmonizing Buddhism with the modern world, however, Taixu's
priorities lay elsewhere.

Harmonizing Buddhism with the
Modern World

In order to harmonize Buddhism with the
modern world and enable the Dharma to meet the needs of the time, Taixu reoriented
the teachings and laid overwhelming stress on ethical aspects of Buddhism. To
do this, he employed a technique with very deep roots in the Chinese Buddhist
tradition -- the panjiao. Panjiao's were used by such schools as

93. "Shehuizhuyi"
317 (translation my own). It is interesting to note that Taixu was considerably
less forgiving when speaking of actual rather than abstract socialists. He once
called the Communist party "simply a devil mob of wild beasts and poisonous
snakes" (Callahan 167).

37

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

Tiantai and Huayan to "divide the teachings"
(which is what the Chinese term literally means) and arrange them in a hierarchy.
Atop this hierarchy sat the teachings of their own school, naturally, as the
most perfect and complete expression of the Buddha's teaching. Although it obviously
derives from this historical model, Taixu does not refer to his systemization
of the different schools of Buddhism as a panjiao but rather as a panshe
(literally: "division and assimilation"). Taixu used this variant
term because he saw his aims as more egalitarian and sought to distance himself
from the hierarchical aspect of traditional panjiao's,[94]
although elements of hierarchy do eventually emerge in his final version.

Over the course of his career Taixu formulated
three different panshe's. The first, formulated before his period of
seclusion, was quite simple. Taixu divided the schools of Chinese Buddhism on
the basis of his distinction between zong and jiao, that is, between
the inner spiritual experience and the way that experience is taught and expressed
to others. Unsurprisingly, Taixu identified Chan, which has always emphasized
direct experience, as zong, while Tiantai, Huayan, Weishi, Madhyamaka, Pure
Land and the Esoteric school were all classified as jiao.[95]
In contrast to traditional panjiao's, the division here was based on
function rather than relative truth of the doctrine. Further, among the jiao,
no ranking was made whatsoever.

While in seclusion he developed a more sophisticated
schema which incorporated the Vinaya school in addition to the seven
schools just mentioned. The number of categories in this systemization was greatly
increased in an attempt to show the way in which the different

schools relate to one another. This panshe
may be represented by the diagram on the following page:[96]

96. Shi
Xuming 12 (translation my own). For another good English translation see Blofeld
124.

39

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

40

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

In essence, Taixu saw these eight schools
as "eight jewels in a single ornament."[97]
That is to say, he considered them equal in realization but different in their
practices; therefore, he thought one should not exalt one at the expense of
the others. I have found no systematic explanation or justification for the
categories used in this schema. Some seem fairly clear such as the designation
of the Vinaya school as the "foundation." Others are more difficult
to understand, such as the distinction between wisdom (zhi) and knowledge
(hui), which are usually treated as synonymous. It may simply be that
Taixu drew some of these distinctions for the sake of symmetry. Whether they
were drawn for this reason or not, such hairsplitting categories indicate a
powerful urge to accord every school its own proper place and function within
the overall structure.

Up to this point the categories Taixu used
have not necessarily denoted a hierarchy. Taixu's final panshe, however,
did contain hierarchical elements which he utilized in the service of harmonizing
Buddhism with the modern world. This third panshe was formulated in 1924.[98]
It was his grandest synthesis of the various Buddhist teachings, and the most
important for our inquiry. This panshe Taixu extended the logic of his
previous panshe's to its ultimate conclusion, organizing all schools
of Buddhism of every nation and every vehicle, but according higher standing
to those of East Asia. Most importantly, however, it justified Taixu's emphasis
on ethics.

Taixu classified all the schools of Buddhism
according to three categories: "teachings" (jiao), "principle"
(li), and "practice" (xing). The

97. John
Blofeld, The Jewel in the Lotus: An Outline of Present Day Buddhism in China,
(Westport, Connecticut: Hyperion Press 1948) 123.

first category, teaching, is further divided
into the three "periods" (qi) and three "departments"
(xi). The three periods refer to the three phases of the development
of Buddhism in India. Taixu divides these epochs according to which form of
Buddhism he saw as dominant, rather than according to events or specific dates.
In the first period, the Hinayana prevailed while the Mahayana was in concealment.
The precise nature of this "concealment" is unclear, but it almost
certainly refers to the traditional Mahayana view that its doctrine was preached
by Sakyamuni but then hidden in one manner or another for the first few centuries.
In Taixu's second period the Mahayana predominated and the Hinayana was secondary.
With the onset of the final period, the Mahayana came to prevail while the Hinayana
went into concealment. Within the Mahayana during this epoch the Esoteric schools
-- the schools which emerged out of the Tantra movement -- came to predominate,
while the Exoteric schools -- the earlier schools of the Mahayana -- became
secondary.[99]

The second subdivision is related to the
first. Taixu's "departments" each refer to a canonical language and
by extension the areas and schools which utilize it. One department emerged
in each period according to the form of Buddhism that was dominant at that time
-- the Pali department when Hinayana was ascendant, the Chinese when the Mahayana
was ascendant, and the Tibetan when the Esoteric school was ascendant. This
threefold division of Buddhism is one which we will see again later in our discussion.
This first category of "teachings" may be outlined as follows:[100]

Teachings

The Three Periods

The Period in which the Hinayana prevailed
and the Mahayana was concealed
The Period in which the Mahayana was predominant and the Hinayana was secondary
The Period in which the Mahayana prevailed and the Hinayana was concealed,
and in which the esoteric predominated and the exoteric was secondary

The Three Departments

The Department of the Pali Language
The Department of the Chinese Language
The Department of the Tibetan Language

Whereas in this first category, Taixu arranged
the various forms of Buddhism according to their historical origins, under the
second category of his panshe, "principle," he arranged them
according to their metaphysics. This category, like the first, is divided into
two subcategories -- the three degrees (ji), and the three schools (zong).
The three degrees refer to different explanations of the "principle,"
or "metaphysical principle," of each.[101]
The term "degree" therefore seems to connote progressively deeper
understandings of this "principle." The first degree is the common
Dharma of the five vehicles (Heavenly, Sravaka, Pratyekabuddha, Human and Bodhisattva
Vehicles). This common Dharma is "conditioned arising" (yuan qi),
the idea that all

things arise according to causes and conditions.
The second degree is the common Dharma of the three vehicles (Heavenly, Sravaka,
and Pratyekabuddha). This refers to the three signs (san yin), which
have traditionally been seen as the doctrines which a Hinayana sutra must contain
to be considered legitimate -- no self, impermanence, and Nirvana.[102]
The third and final degree is the special Dharma of the Great Vehicle -- the
doctrine of the state of bhutathata (yi shi xiang), the oneness
of Thusness,[103] which denotes the undifferentiated
oneness of the Buddhanature. This doctrine has traditionally been regarded as
the sign of an authentic Mahayana scripture.

The three "degrees" also seem to refer
to three progressive degrees of spiritual attainment that result from each.
According to Taixu through the common Dharma of the Five Vehicles one can "rid
oneself of evil and practice good and thereby advance the happiness of the human
world." By means of the common Dharma of the Three Vehicles one can advance
to "gradually awaken, cut off delusion and realize truth, and liberate
people from their sufferings and vexations." Finally, through the special
Dharma of the Great vehicle, one can "suddenly awaken, at once become a
Buddha, and perfect the realization of one's nature."[104]

Taixu distinguished the three "schools,"
the second subdivision, by their three different formulations of this special
Dharma and arranged them progressively according to the depth of their explanations.[105]
This category bears resemblance to the panjiao's of Tiantai and Huayan.
The

102. It
is not entirely clear why this common Dharma is ranked higher than the one that
precedes it.

first school, the "School of the Wisdom
[that Discerns the] Empty Natures of Dharmas" (Faxing kong hui zong),
refers to the Madhyamaka or "Three Treatise" (San Lun) school.[106]
This school taught that all phenomena or dharmas, are empty of an independent
self nature and come into existence only as the result of causes and conditions.
Taixu felt that this school offered the most "concise view and practice."
The second school, that of the "School of the Mind Only [Nature] of the
Characteristics of Dharmas" (Faxiang weishi zong), or simply Weishi,
taught that phenomena are empty in that they are all products of Mind. He felt
that this school had a particularly good explanation of karma.[107]
The final and highest school is the "School of the Perfect Enlightenment
of the Dharmadhatu" (Fajie yuanjue zong) which refers to
the Tiantai and Huayan schools.[108] These
two schools taught the unobstructed interpenetration of phenomena. This classification
both reflects and reinforces the overwhelming importance Taixu accorded emptiness
as the essence of the Mahayana. It also reflects his propensity to vary his
explanations of this principle, for although he placed the "School of the
Perfect Enlightenment of the Dharmadhatu" at the top of this hierarchy,
he attributed some merit to the other schools as well. The category of "principle"
may be summarized as follows:[109]

106. Although
this school is not explicitly referred to as the "Three Treatise School,"
several things support this identification. On page 15 of Shi Xuming Zhongguan
is used as a synonym for this school. Zhongguan is the name of the most
important of the three treatises, and Zhonglan xing jiao is another name
for Madhyamaka. Further, in his second panshe Taixu classified Madhyamaka
under the category of nature (xing), and the subcategory wisdom (hui).

Principle

The Common Dharma of the Five Vehicles
The Common Dharma of the Three Vehicles
The Special Dharma of the Great Vehicle

The Three Schools

The School of the Wisdom of the Empty Natures
of Dharmas
The School of the Dharma Character of Mere Ideation
The School of the Perfect Enlightenment of the Dharmadhatu

The final division of the teachings, "practice,"
is most important for our inquiry. Taixu followed tradition in dividing the
history of Buddhism into the three ages of the Dharma, each lasting one thousand
years, however, he deviated from tradition in asserting that in each era there
is one vehicle which is the most appropriate expedient means for that time.
By practicing these vehicles one may advance to one aspect or another of the
Great Vehicle,[110] which he seemed to view
as synonymous with the Bodhisattva Vehicle.[111]
Taixu saw this vehicle as not simply an expedient device but the true path to
enlightenment and thus the ultimate destination of all vehicles.[112]
Therefore, in the Period of the True Dharma

111.
This identification is based on a passage in "History" (30) in which
he speaks of the practice of the Human Vehicle leading to the "ten stations,"
which is presumably a translation of the ten bhumi. However, this apparently
contradicts the inclusion of the Bodhisattva Vehicle in the Five Vehicles. It
may be that it is identified as one of the Five Vehicles insofar as it is a
path of ethical service dedicated to advancing "the happiness of the human
world," but identified with the Great Vehicle insofar as it leads to ultimate
realization. Or Taixu may simply be inconsistent on this point.

one relies on the practices of the Sravaka Vehicle
(Shengwen cheng), that is, Hinayana Buddhism, and advances to "producing
the heart" of the Great Vehicle. In the second period, that of the Counterfeit
Dharma, one relies on the practice of the Heavenly Vehicle (Tian cheng)
and advances to "obtaining the fruit" of the Great Vehicle.[113]
Taixu's use of the term "Heavenly Vehicle" deviates a bit from tradition.
Traditionally it refers to practices which secure rebirth in one of the various
heavens, but Taixu uses it to refer to Pure Land and Esoteric Buddhism.[114]
In the final era, the Period of the Termination of the Dharma, one relies on
the practices and fruits of the Human Vehicle (Ren cheng) and advances
to the practice of the Great Vehicle. Like the Heavenly Vehicle, the "Human
Vehicle" is a traditional term, but, as we shall see, Taixu accords it
unprecedented importance. This final division may be outlined as follows:[115]

Practice

The Period of the True Dharma in which one
relies on the practices and fruits of the Sravaka Vehicle and advances to
producing the heart of the Great Vehicle.
The Period of the Counterfeit Dharma in which one relies on the practices
and fruits of the Heavenly Vehicle and advances to obtaining the fruit of
the Great Vehicle

The Period of the termination of the Dharma
in which one relies on the practices and fruits of the Human Vehicle and advances
to entering the cultivation of the practices of the Great Vehicle

By way of summary, we may combine the three
categories and outline the whole panshe as follows:

Teachings

The Three Periods

The Period in which the Hinayana prevailed
and the Mahayana was concealed
The Period in which the Mahayana was predominant and the Hinayana was secondary
The Period in which the Mahayana prevailed and the Hinayana was concealed,
and in which the esoteric predominated and the exoteric was secondary

The Three Departments

The Department of the Pali Language
The Department of the Chinese Language
The Department of the Tibetan Language

Principle

The Three Degrees

The Common Dharma of the Five Vehicles
The Common Dharma of the Three Vehicles
The Special Dharma of the Great Vehicle

48

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

The Three Schools

The School of the Wisdom of the Empty Natures
of Dharmas
The School of the Dharma Character of Mere Ideation
The School of the Perfect Enlightenment of the Dharmadhatu

Practice

The Period of the True Dharma in which one
relies on the practices and fruits of the Sravaka Vehicle and advances to
producing the heart of the Great Vehicle.
The Period of the Counterfeit Dharma in which one relies on the practices
and fruits of the Heavenly Vehicle and advances to obtaining the fruit of
the Great Vehicle
The Period of the termination of the Dharma in which one relies on the practices
and fruits of the Human Vehicle and advances to entering the cultivation of
the practices of the Great Vehicle

Taixu's identification of the Human Vehicle
as the expedient means for our era was the crux of his attempt to bring Buddhism
into harmony with the modern world. He held that, today, if one practices according
to the Lesser Vehicle one will be "reviled as negative and escapist,"
and if one practices according to the Heavenly Vehicle one will be "slandered
as superstitious" (we might notice a parallel here between the risks associated
with the practice of these two vehicles and his critique of contemporary Buddhism).
Thus, although they actually rank higher than the Human Vehicle in his three "degrees," Taixu felt that in today's world these

49

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter IV: Harmonization

vehicles are not only no longer expedient but
can even be a hindrance to practice.[116] Elsewhere,
however, Taixu seems to indicate that the human vehicle's expediency is largely
in regard to popular teaching,[117] which seems
to indicate that he thought the other vehicles were still valid but no longer
appropriate for most. An interpretation supported by the fact that Taixu said
that the common Dharma of the Three Vehicles can lead to gradual awakening and
that he occasionally encouraged certain esoteric practices.[118]

That notwithstanding, Taixu maintained that
in today's world the ethical approach of the Human Vehicle (sometimes also referred
to as the Buddhism of Human Life) is most appropriate. The heart of this vehicle
lay in adopting and implementing the five precepts and the ten virtuous deeds.
According to Taixu, this practice yields several fruits. First, such ethical
action will lead to the purification of the human world and the establishment
of a "Pure Land among people,"[119]
for each person "must go and serve society, and seek society's benefit."[120]
Also, it can lead the practitioner to "discover and strengthen... hidden
qualities" which will eventually lead to the Bodhisattva Vehicle and on
to Buddhahood.[121] But for the majority, for
whom achieving enlightenment is too difficult to accomplish in this life, the
Human Vehicle also holds forth the promise of a better rebirth.[122]

mistakenly taken a single practice, such as meditation
or recitation of the Buddha's name, as the whole of practice. They "did
not know that all practices which benefit the masses of humanity are the karmic
foundation of Buddhahood... [whereas] neglecting and not doing them cuts off
the seeds of Buddhahood."[123] Thus the
ethical orientation of the Human Vehicle is essentially a social one in Taixu's
view. It is also important to note that this is not an exclusively monastic
form of practice. Monastics and laity, people of all levels of society can practice
the Human Vehicle in order to move closer to liberation.

In the context of Taixu's Buddhism of Human
Life the threefold summary of Buddhist practice -- sila, samadhi,
and prajna -- took on an interpretation which differs slightly from tradition.[124]
Taixu's definitions of the terms are fairly standard. In his view, sila
comprises maintaining the five precepts, accumulating merit, and rendering aid
to all sentient beings; samadhi is the practice of concentration; and
prajna is the wisdom "derived from meditation, from thought, and
from strict mental discipline." The significant departure from standard
interpretations is that rather than treating them as separate but mutually complimentary,
or subordinating samadhi to prajna, Taixu makes sila the
most critical element of the triad and subordinates samadhi to it. Both
sila and samadhi, according to him, are related to conduct, and "if you fail here you fail in all." Sila alone is insufficient
to ensure proper conduct for one may be outwardly virtuous but have a "wayward
heart." According to Taixu, by the practice of samadhi one may unify
the mind and bring the heart

Taixu also gave his emphasis on ethics a
metaphysical justification derived from the key Mahayana doctrine of emptiness.
As he applied it to the realm of human relationships, emptiness meant that anything
one does to others, one is ultimately doing to oneself.[126]
The realization of this principle has never been more urgent in Taixu's view
than in the modern era, for,

"we are living in an epoch when all nations
are becoming more and more interdependent and this alone should suffice to
show that humanity is a whole. To help others is to help oneself, and to hurt
others is to do oneself a double injury, and yet, we find all nations today
living in mutual distrust and preparing for war under cover of apparent peace.
Such a policy is not only inhuman, it shows a lack of intelligence."[127]

Since the individual cannot exist without the
group and the group cannot exist without the individual, it is the responsibility
of all to practice ethical action and bring humanity closer to the ultimate
goal of the Buddhism of Human Life -- a Pure Land among people.[128]

This reorientation of Buddhism to emphasize
ethical practice is the key to this second part of Taixu's harmonization. The
fundamental problem of the modern world is one of ethics. Thus by laying such
stress on the ethical teachings of Buddhism, Taixu brings to the foreground
what he considered the most critically important aspect of the teachings. He
justifies this through his panshe, and grounds it in his metaphysics.
By selecting the Human Vehicle as the upaya of our times, and justifying
it with the doctrine of Thusness, he also attempted to avoid the

"negativism" and "superstition"
which he felt characterized the Sravaka, Heavenly Vehicles, and also contemporary
Buddhism. Having now completed our examination of Taixu's theoretical work,
we can turn our attention to his "application" of that theoretical
work to the social world.

53

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter
V: Application

Chapter V

Application

Although Taixu wrote broadly on theoretical
matters, he was not satisfied with merely theoretical formulations, for as he
saw it, "Buddhism puts the emphasis on actual conduct in life, on living
the truth."[129] The reform of existing
institutions and the establishment of new ones occupied much of his attention
throughout his career. These endeavors closely reflected the theoretical underpinnings
which have been the object of our discussion until now. Indeed, although I have
classed these efforts as "application," in a certain sense they may
also be seen as a continuation of his attempt to bring Buddhism into harmony
with modernity. Many of his institutions and plans incorporated modern organizational
techniques and other methods. Although many plans were never implemented and
more than a few projects failed, Taixu's institutional reforms and innovations
are a key element of his thought. The problems he saw with Buddhism were in
large part institutional, thus institutions could not be ignored. In addition,
he contended that the problems of the modern world cannot be solved through
mere talk. In short, the logic of Taixu's theories demanded a movement.

Sangha Reform

One of the aspects of his movement that
Taixu was never able to implement was sangha reform. He began writing
on this subject while in seclusion on Putuo Shan and continued to develop new
blueprints for reform throughout his career. Their variations aside, his plans
had two

goals in common: to efficiently organize the
sangha, and to improve the quality of monastics. In 1915 he wrote "On
the Reform of the Sangha System" (Zhengli sengjia zhidu lun),
and in 1918 published it in the first issue of the Bodhi Society Journal
(Jueshe jikan, later renamed Sound of the Sea Tide, Haichaoyin).[130]
In this essay Taixu called for eliminating commercialism and illiteracy, fostering
higher intellectual and spiritual standards, requiring productive labor,[131]
simplifying ceremonies, and devoting monasteries to meditation and research.[132]

This would be accomplished in a reorganized
institutional setting. Taixu advocated the establishment of seven "model
monasteries" (zhong mofan conglin), and eight "special monasteries"
(zong zhuan xiu conglin)[133] each devoted to one of the eight sects
incorporated in his panshe of the time. In addition to these exemplary
institutions, a certain number of regular monasteries would be established in
each province and there would be preaching chapels in every city.[134] Above
these would be an umbrella organization called the "Garden of the Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha" (Fo fa seng yuan).[135] This organization
would include bureaus of propaganda, lectures, and publishing, as well as benevolent
associations, orphanages, reading rooms, and a school system culminating in
a college.[136] Located in the capital, a national monastery would stand alongside
the university and would include a museum for Buddhist

130. Welch
gives the name of this journal as Bodhi Society Miscellany (fueshe zongshu).
Boorman has been followed instead.

131.
Callahan sees this as a purely pragmatic solution to the problem of economic
support (Callahan 179), while Tsu sees it as an antidote for laziness (Tsu 507).
Taixu himself seems to have seen it as a way to counteract otherworldliness
(Ruji 10).

In 1930 Taixu published his "Outline
for Establishing the Sangha" (Jian seng dagang) a major revision
of his earlier program. This program was comparatively modest. It advocated
dividing the sangha into four groups corresponding loosely to different
phases of the monastic career. The first group would be that of student monks.
Entering the monastic life at the age of eighteen directly after graduating
from high school, student monks would spend two years studying the Vinaya
and ceremonies before taking their bhikku vows. Afterwards they would undertake
four years of "common" (putong) study, three years of "high
level" (gao deng) study, and finally three years of "advanced
study" (canxue, literally: participation study). The second grouping
was "professional" monks. This group included those occupied in the
temples and related institutions. The third grouping, termed the "virtuous
monks," referred to abbots, the elderly, and hermits. Finally, the fourth, "miscellaneous," group consisted of those who prove unable to uphold
their vows and are reassigned to supporting institutions. Productive labor was
omitted from this plan, because Taixu had concluded that it simply wasn't proper
to the monastic role. Taixu's focus in this plan was to foster what he referred
to as "the monastic character," particularly through faith in the
three jewels and study of the paramitas.[138] The meaning of the term "monastic character" is ambiguous, but may be inferred from this proposal.
From the emphasis on education, particularly in the Vinaya, we can see
that it entailed high educational and ethical standards. The latter is reinforced
by the fourth miscellaneous category for those who were

In 1931, Taixu made a series of more practical
proposals. He suggested limiting entry into the sangha and gradually
eliminating the incompetent. Construction of new temples was to be halted in
favor of restoring old ones and establishing charitable institutions. He suggested
licensing temples and clergy and compiling accurate statistics on Chinese Buddhism.
He advocated employing influential and talented monks to handle educational
administration. Finally, he urged the expansion of monastic education.[139]
This, like all of his plans for sangha reform, went largely unheeded
and wholly unimplemented.

His efforts in this area failed, but the
logic behind them is clear -- to meet the needs of the modern world. Buddhism
required a modern clergy. Though his proposals for reorganizing the sangha
varied, they all sought to impart modern efficiency. Explicitly or implicitly
each of the plans required a degree of centralization and universalization.
In place of the nearly complete autonomy of the monasteries of his day, Taixu
sought to establish a universal system and standard. He also sought to improve
the monastics themselves, to improve their moral character through the Vinaya,
and their understanding of doctrine through education.

Monastic Education

Education was one of the most important
aspects of Taixu's reform plan, and also one of his most successful. In contrast
to his efforts at sangha reform, in the area of monastic education Taixu
not only formulated idealistic plans but was also able to implement them. The

importance of education flows logically from
Taixu's theoretical work. The essence of the Mahayana is Thusness, and the distinguishing
feature of Buddhas and bodhisattvas is their understanding that doctrine. Thus
it should come as no surprise that Taixu put a great deal of effort into educating
people in doctrinal matters. He did not stop at doctrine, however, but also
included modern secular subjects in his curriculum. This was both a reflection
of the stress he laid on non-Buddhist forms of knowledge and a practical measure
for his movement.

Although his efforts in education were on
the whole quite successful, Taixu's grand plan in the area of education, the
World Institute of Buddhist Studies (Shijie foxueyuan), was never fully
implemented. He did, however, give the organization some nominal existence by
designating each of his already established Buddhist academies as a different
department of the institute. For the most part, each department was named for
the language in which its students were to specialize. For example, the "College
of Buddhist Teachings" was to serve as the Sino-American department; the "Sino-Tibetan Institute" (of course), as the Sino-Tibetan department;
Minnan, as the Sino-Japanese; and the Institute of the Pali Tripitaka, as the
Pali department. Wuchang, however, served as the library.[140]

Taixu's plan was typically inclusive. The curriculum
fell under four headings -- research on the teachings (more properly art and
literature), research on doctrines, practice, and the realization of fruits.
The last of these is rather unclear. The "realization of fruits" is
certainly the result of "practice," but it seems strange that he should
have included

it in the plan for his institute. At any rate
we can say that Taixu did not intend to exclude traditional spiritual practice
for the sake of purely academic research. These four may in turn be divided
up as follows:[141]

Research on the Teachings

Collection of Buddhist Ritual Implements
Verification and Classification of Buddhist Historical Materials
Correction through Textual Criticism of the Buddhist Canon
Compilation and Editing of Buddhist Books
In the Areas of

Research on Doctrines

The Hinayana Schools of India
The Mahayana Schools of India
The Synthetic Schools of China
The Research Schools of Europe and America[142]

141. Shi
Xuming 26 (translation my own). For a complete but poor translation see Chou 13-14,
for a partial but more accurate translation see "Meaning" 695.

142.
Millican ("Meaning" 695) calls this "new groups in America and
Europe who a studying Buddhism," and Chou (Chou 14) "the Recent Schools
of Europe and America." Thus it is unclear whether this refers to groups
of Buddhists, or to groups of academics. Shi Xuming has "Research Schools"
(yanjiupai), thus it seems the latter is more likely.

59

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter V: Application

Practice

The Grove (lin) of Discipline and Rituals
-- the universal precepts of the Bodhisattva, and the precepts of the other
seven classes of disciples
The Grove of Meditation -- all of the zhiguan of both the Mahayana
and Hinayana as well as of the Chan School
The Grove of Esoteric Dharani -- the one mudra and dharani (yi yin ming)
as well as the limitless mudra and dharani (wuliang yin ming),[143]
etc.
The Grove of the Pure Land -- Sukhavati Pure Land, or Tushita Pure Land, etc.

Realization of Fruits

The Fruit of Faith -- Researching the Teachings
and Doctrines
The Fruit of Virtue -- Receiving and Upholding the Precepts and Vinaya
The Fruit of Samadhi -- Practicing Meditation
The Fruit of Prajna -- Practicing Surpassing Meditation (xiu sheng changuan)

Which correspond to

143. My
translation here is tentative. "The dharani of one seal and the dharani of
limitless seals" is another possibility.

60

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter V: Application

Although the academies which Taixu actually established
fell considerably short of this ideal, they were among his most substantial
contributions to Chinese Buddhism. He founded seven academies throughout China
and graduates of those academies founded at least five well known academies
of their own.[144] Some of Taixu's academies,
such as the Buddhist College for the Study of Tibetan and the College of Buddhist
Teachings in Beijing closed down almost as soon as they were opened.[145]
Others, however, proved more durable, such as the Sino-Tibetan Institute (Hanzang
jiaoli yuan) in Chongqing which stayed open from its founding in 1931 until
the Communist victory in 1949. This academy accommodated as many as a hundred
students at a time and served as Taixu's base of operations during the war.[146]
This longevity is certainly attributable in part to the fact that it was subsidized
by the government as part of its Tibetan policy.[147]

Without a doubt the most famous, well respected,
and consequently best documented of his academies were the Wuchang Buddhist
Academy (Wuchang foxueyuan) in Wuchang (one of the three cities which
today make up Wuhan) and the Minnan Buddhist Academy (Minnan foxueyuan)
at Nan Putuo Monastery in Xiamen. By examining these two institutions we can
begin to see what the application of Taixu's program looked like in concrete
terms.

The Wuchang Buddhist Academy was Taixu's
first foray into pedagogy. Founded in 1922, it was the first Buddhist educational
institution to refer to itself as a "Buddhist academy" (foxueyuan),
but by

1945 almost all such institutions used the term
and to one degree or another adopted its methods and curriculum.[148] In 1925
there were seventy students enrolled, all of whom were middle school graduates,[149]
including both monastics and laity.[150] These students and those of later classes
graduated with the title "Dharma teacher" (fashi), a term traditionally
reserved for older, venerable monks and abbots. This reflects the importance
that Taixu placed on doctrine and the understanding of doctrine. According to
one source "most of the educated monks of [the time had] graduated from
this Academy."[151] The Academy also boasted one of the "four most
complete" libraries among Buddhist academies,[152] holding 40,000 volumes.[153]
It remained active until "political shifts" in the region caused it
to be shut down and occupied by soldiers (a common fate for Buddhist institutions
at that time) around 1933.[154]

When Taixu established the academy he modeled
its curriculum after that of the Buddhist universities of Japan,[155] which
covered topics such as Buddhist history, texts, doctrines, and ethics,[156]
as well as secular subjects. Instruction at the academy made use of modern pedagogic
techniques including textbooks[157] and blackboards (especially important given
the proliferation of technical vocabulary in Buddhism and the large number of
homophones in Chinese). Students each had their own copy of

the text under discussion and took notes on the
lecture. Buddhist services were also considered part of the curriculum and were
held daily with Taixu himself regularly taking part.[158]

The curriculum also had a more practical side.
It included what we might think of as a pastoral practicum. Taixu brought his
students into close relationship with the local laity.[159] On weekends, they
would go to the Hankou Right Faith Society across the river for practical exercises
in preaching which would take place in the lecture hall or street chapel. Oftentimes
Taixu himself would lecture there, and afterwards the audience would break into
small groups in which students from the academy would answer questions and give
short lectures of their own. Taixu would also take students along on his lecture
tours.[160]

This practical component reveals a key point
about the character of these academies. Although Taixu laid great stress on
understanding doctrine and certainly accorded it intrinsic value, he was not
in the business of training academics but rather of generating the human resources
for his movement. After graduation he wanted his monastic students to spread
out to reform temples or work in monastic education themselves, and his lay
students to return home to practice the Human Vehicle, organize lay societies,
and generally promote the movement.[161]

Taixu's other highly successful academy was Minnan.
Originally founded in 1925 by the abbot of Nan Putuo Monastery (where it was

located),[162] directorship of the academy was
taken over by Taixu in 1927, and was entrusted to one of his students in 1937.[163]
Before it was forced to close in 1939 by the Japanese advance,[164] Minnan produced
more Dharma teachers than any other Buddhist academy in the country.[165] Holmes
Welch, who interviewed a former student at Minnan, says that the many of the
characteristics of this academy may be generalized to Taixu's other academies.[166]
If this is the case (and it seems likely that it is since the picture presented
of it is entirely consonant with what we know of those other academies), then
an examination of Minnan can fill in the blanks left in our discussion of the
Wuchang Buddhist Academy.

When Taixu took over the academy, he immediately
set about making changes both in the form and content of the course of study.
Under his direction, written entrance exams were instituted along with diplomas
and a regular grading system.[167] Students were not lectured to by a traditional
red-robed monk seated on a dais before the hall, but rather by modern style
instructors who were often laymen. As in Wuchang the lecturer made use of a
blackboard and students took notes, but Welch's informant adds that students
also responded to questions about the reading, answering in their own words
rather than with catechistic formulas. Morning and evening services were observed
but there was no formal meditation practice or recitation of the Buddha's name.
Rather than observe the traditional rest days of the lunar month, Taixu's students

Initially Minnan offered a six year course
of study. It began with three years of the "common course" (putong
ke). This entailed eighteen hours a week on secular subjects -- six hours
of traditional literature, five hours of Japanese, five hours of history and
geography, and two hours of psychology. Far more time was spent on Buddhist
material -- three hours of Buddhist history, and thirty hours of Buddhist texts.
The content of the latter changed over the years shifting from the curriculum
that was borrowed from Japan and that focused on the best known sutras, to a
curriculum focused on treatises and commentaries, particularly works on Weishi,
hetuvidya logic, and Abhidharma. Until the mid-thirties the common course was
followed by a specialized course (zhuanxiu ke), but it was discontinued
for lack of students and replaced by a preparatory class -- the Buddhist Academy
for Fostering Orthodoxy (Yangzheng foxueyuan). This curriculum also entailed
three years of study including traditional literature, geography, and basic
Buddhist texts.[169]

A final point about Taixu's efforts in education
which deserves special mention is his "study abroad program." Over
his career, he managed to send a number of students abroad for further study.
The short lived Buddhist College for the Study of Tibetan was founded specifically
to the prepare its students for further study in Tibet, Though, ten students
from the college's only graduating class set off for Tibet,[170] only three
were allowed into the country. This included Fazun[171] who later became dean
of

Taixu's Sino-Tibetan Institute,[172] In the forties
Taixu turned his attentions southward. In 1940, he secured government assistance
to send three monks to Ceylon and India for study, and in 1946 sent two more
monks to Ceylon as part of an "exchange" with the Mahabodhi Society.[173]
Taixu also sent students to Japan, Burma, and Malaya.[174]

To summarize, Taixu's educational program
embraced modern pedagogic methods to instill an in-depth knowledge of many facets
of Buddhism, and a good familiarity with secular fields of study. It also had
a practical dimension, training his students to organize and preach to the laity
in order to propagate the movement. Lastly, it had an international dimension,
reflected in the plan for the World Institute for Buddhist Studies, in the language
instruction at Taixu's academies and his attempts to send them abroad for further
study. These three points both reflect Taixu's theories and lay the practical
foundations for his movement. Not only does the curriculum coincide with Taixu's
view on the role of doctrine, the practical training in preaching reflects the
ethical emphasis of the Human Vehicle. Giving the Dharma has always been regarded
by Buddhists as a particularly meritorious action, and an important way for
the sangha to interact with the laity. Furthermore, the ability to preach,
and knowledge of modern subjects, particularly languages, was important to the
propaganda efforts which we shall discuss shortly.

172. Wei-huan
148. This academy achieved greater success in sending its students to Lhasa than
its predecessor (Welch 199).

Lay Societies

Although some laymen attended Taixu's Buddhist
academies, most participated in his movement through the lay societies. Although
his lecture tours seem to indicate that many lay societies were affiliated with
him, or at least sympathetic to his cause, there is little information available
about most of them. The only such organizations which are well documented and
have an explicit affiliation with Taixu are the "Bodhi Society" (Jue
she) of Shanghai (later of Hangzhou) and the "Right Faith Society"
(Zhengxin hui) of Hankou (across the river from the Wuchang Buddhist
Academy).[175] The individuals who joined these organizations came from "all
walks of life" but the well-educated and the upper classes were disproportionately
represented. They attracted "merchants, lawyers, doctors... officials...
and students."[176] They were the "intellectual classes" who
had "always risen to the majestic heights of the true doctrine." This
was the class of society with the education necessary understand the essence
of Buddhism, and also the class that had been most deeply influenced by modernization.[177]
It was only natural that Taixu would aim his message at them and draw his supporters
for their ranks. Indeed, these organizations came to be among Taixu's chief
organs of reform and his primary financial backers.[178]

Taixu, together with two laymen, founded his
first lay society in

175. This
organization is referred to by many different names in English language accounts.
However, given the similarities of the descriptions and the fact that no account
mentions more than one lay organization in Hankou, it seems safe to conclude that
they are all one and the same.

Shanghai shortly after emerging from seclusion
in 1918.[179] Dubbed the Bodhi Society, the organization's early aims were comparatively
modest by Taixu's standards -- "to propound the essence of Mahayana Buddhism,"[180]
and to research Buddhist teachings and meditation. To this end the Bodhi Society
published a periodical, the Bodhi Society Journal (Jueshe jikan).[181]
Membership required sympathy with the organization's aims, acceptance of the
three refuges, the four vows, and the ten virtuous deeds, and also diligently
study of the sutras, observing fasts, practicing meditation, and performing
charitable works.[182]

Two years later, Taixu founded another Bodhi
Society in Hangzhou and shut down its predecessor in Shanghai.[183] The society's
journal also moved to Hangzhou and was renamed Sound of the Sea Tide
(Haichaoyin).[184] In Hangzhou, the requirements for membership were
more elaborate. These included "rules for self improvement" -- that
one take the three refuges, the four vows, and "examine into good knowledge,
investigate [one's] own heart, study Buddhist Law, [and] practice the doings
of the [bodhisattvas] in order to perfect [one's] body and wisdom;" and "special and constant practices" -- meditation, right speech, study
of the Moheyin Sutra, recitation of the Buddha's name, etc.; as well
as "things done at convenience" -- "worship and penitence, cultivation
of good deeds, as opportunity comes." They also reserved one week each
year for recitation of the Buddha's name, and one week for meditation, as well
as

The Hangzhou Bodhi Society, however, was not
only devoted to the fostering and expression of piety, it was also an active
social organization in the city. It operated a primary school, a hospital for
the poor, and distributed free literature. The society was also influential
in local monastic affairs, giving financial aid to two monasteries, effecting
a change in sect affiliation in one, and cooperating in the selection of at
least five abbots.[186]

The Right Faith Society in Hankou was even larger
in scope than the Bodhi Society. Founded by Taixu in 1922,[187] by 1933 its
membership had soared to 30,000.[188] To accommodate a membership of this size,
the Right Faith Society had extensive facilities. It occupied a "large
and excellent building of its own," which included a sizable auditorium,
a temple, a lecture hall, reception parlors, and office space.[189] The rooftop
even had a crystalline sarira surrounded by mirrors and electric lights.[190]

Within the walls of this impressive facility,
the association conducted an equally impressive range of activities. It is not
known if the society had guidelines regarding practice as did the Bodhi Society,
however, it did sponsor group observances. These included well attended lectures
on the sutras, as well as observances of the birthdays of

185. From
the organizations "regulations" as translated by Millican (Millican
330).

187.
Holmes Welch dates the founding of the organization at 1920 and attributes it
to its first president Wang Senpu (77-8), granting Taixu a "key role"
(312 n.). Pratt splits the difference, dating it at 1921 ("Present Condition"
23).

188.
Boorman 209. Here, again, Welch differs placing the membership at only a tenth
the figure quoted here. Pratt corroborates Welch's figure as of his visit in
the early twenties. The larger figure may simply represent ten years of growth.

Sakyamuni and Guanyin.[191] When Pratt visited
in the early twenties, the society maintained a place outside the city for lay
meditation, and had regular religious services in which laymen chanted the sutras
under the guidance of a monk.[192] Perhaps the most interesting religious activity
sponsored by the society was its "street chapel" modeled after those
of Christian missions. In his biography of Miaoji, a Wuchang graduate and later
convert to Christianity, Reichelt describes it thus:

"A new and interesting scene was revealed
when darkness fell. A door had been opened wide and people from the street
poured into the preaching chapel where an imposing statue of Amitabha stood
at the rear. The niche where the image was set up was brilliantly illuminated
by electric bulbs. The radiant figure of Amitabha and the music from the organ
soon had its effect and the hall became completely filled. A sermon began
followed by testimonials from the students [from the Wuchang Buddhist Academy]
[193]

The Right Faith Society also organized a number
of charitable activities. Among these were services for the poor which included
a clinic staffed by Western style and traditional doctors who volunteered their
services, an associated free dispensary, a free primary school for local children,
free coffins, and donations of food for the New Year's celebration. The society
also donated money to a home for widows, and provided disaster relief such as
soup kitchens for victims of fire, and dispatching boats and supplying food
in times of flood.[194]

Both the Right Faith Society and the Bodhi Society
acted as more than simply social clubs for the pious. They encouraged their
members in

spiritual cultivation and held lectures and other
activities in order to improve their understanding of the Buddhadharma, as taught
by their founder Taixu. Most importantly, however, they were active in the community.
Rather than limiting their religion to the "other-world," as Taixu
accused other contemporary Buddhist's of doing, they planted the seeds of Buddhahood
in the way he thought most appropriate to the times, namely, social service.

Propaganda

Another important way in which the lay societies
participated in Taixu's movement was the propagation of the Dharma through publications
and lectures. Taixu referred to this work as "propaganda," not intending
the negative connotations that have accrued to the word since his time. As he
said in his address to the East Asian Buddhist Conference, Buddhist doctrine
must be preached to the "masses... in the market places, on the highways,
in trains and on boats, in soldiers barracks, hospitals, factories, and prison
wards."[195] This effort to bring the doctrine to the masses may be usefully
divided into domestic and international activities.

Domestic

Without a doubt the crown jewel of Taixu's
domestic propaganda efforts was his journal,Sound of the Sea Tide. This
was the only institution he founded which outlived him, having been removed
to Taiwan after 1949. Sound of the Sea Tide had the highest circulation
of

any Buddhist periodical and was widely regarded
as the highest in quality.[196] The magazine dealt with a wide variety of topics.
Any given issue might contain articles on the sutras; on Chinese, Western, or
Indian philosophy; on psychology or comparative religion,[197] even physical
science.[198] It also published reform pieces and testimonials,[199] as well
as "extensive correspondence" between Taixu and others on various
points of Buddhist doctrine.[200] Oftentimes lectures originally given at the
Wuchang Buddhist Academy would later be reprinted here.[201]

Outside of Sound of the Sea Tide
and the nine other, less famous, journals associated with his movement, Taixu
also published widely on his own. These writings tended to focus more narrowly
on Buddhism than the pieces which appeared in Sound of the Sea Tide.
The most important of these writings included An Introduction to Buddhology
(Foxue gailun), Origins of the Most Eminent Buddhist Sects (Fojiao
mingzongpai yuanliu), The Influence of Buddhism on Chinese Culture
(Fojiao duiyu zhongguo wenhua zhi yingxiang), Philosophy (zhexue),
and The Essential Discourses of the Buddhist Patriarchs (Fochengzong
yaolun).[202] These works were "very popular with the younger generation."[203]

Another method of domestic propaganda was Taixu's
lecture tours and so-called "revival meetings." Taixu lectured far
and wide across

China. These lectures often dealt with famous
sutras and sastras and related them to the Buddhism of the Human Vehicle. They
included the Lotus, the Avatamsaka, the Cheng weishi lun,
the Surangama, the four Pure Land Sutras, the Fanwang Jing, and
others. Notably the two texts which most often served as the basis for his lectures
were the Heart Sutra and the Vimalakirti.[204] Other times, his
lectures dealt with the relationship between Buddhism and other fields such
as philosophy, science, economics, and social reform. Such was the case in his
lectures to students at Zhonghua University in Wuchang and West China Union
University in Chengdu, both of which, interestingly, had Christian affiliations.[205]

In making these lecture tours, Taixu made
use of modern media techniques and Christian formats which led some foreign
observers to refer to them as "revival meetings." Judging from the
coverage in Sound of the Sea Tide, these revival meetings occurred in
most major cities. The magazine served to publicize such events before the fact
and also encouraged follow up by publishing news accounts, reports on successes,
and stories of social work that resulted from Taixu's visit.[206] Two accounts
by foreigners living in China describing revival meetings conducted by Taixu
and his disciples are available. The first was related to Professor James Pratt
by A. J. Brace, a secretary for the Chengdu Y.M.C.A. who felt that Taixu's movement
had "seriously hurt" his organization's drive for new members. According
to Brace,

"in the summer of 1922 disciples of the
famous Monk T'ai Hsu journeyed from Shanghai to Chengtu... to bring the modernized
message of Buddhism as taught by their master.

Their coming was the occasion of great rejoicing,
and a real revival of Buddhism was the result. They had been heralded for
more than a year and their way prepared by a wide circulation of T'ai Hsu's
popular magazine "Hai Chao Yin"... Very carefully edited articles
had prepared the people for the visit of the missionaries, and the new message
found a ready response even before their arrival. It brought a message of
peace for troubled days, and the magazine clearly stated that the new message
was destined to lift the sublime teachings of the Mahayana Doctrine for the
help of the people tossed about in the sea of modern doubt. The message was
essentially spiritual and taught... three propositions, (1) a real desire
to reform monasticism, (2) a plan to reconstruct Buddhist theology along lines
of modern philosophy, (3) to use the teachings of Buddha to elevate the people
and improve social conditions... The opening meetings were attended by large
crowds who listened attentively to the new program, and large numbers voluntarily
enrolled themselves for the daily course to be given. In fact, a real program
was gotten out, much like a university course... and fees charged... Then
daily the large hall in the Public Garden... was thronged with auditors to
hear the public addresses, and classrooms were filled with eager students...
A thorough course was given in the history of Buddhism, what it had done for
the world, and how it had become accrued with many superstitions. Now all
was changed. The old simple story of the Enlightened One and how he found
the way of salvation was declared. Idolatry was opposed, and in bygone days
it was tolerated only as an accommodation to the weaknesses of ignorant people.
Now education was to be stressed, the priests had always been ignorant. A
Buddhist university was to be established. The monks were encouraged to be
busy as learners and servants of the people rather than follow the lazy lives
of the past. The mercy of the Buddha was taught and enjoined... Most emphasized
were the daily hours for fasting and reflection. A real revival was effected
along these lines.[207]

We find a similar, if briefer and less detailed,
account from Reichelt of a revival meeting held in Hankou ten years later.[208]

Thus from his publications and lectures we can
draw several generalizations. Taixu's domestic propaganda efforts made extensive
use of modern methods to persuade the masses. He made use of his publications
both to make his message known and also to hold the movement together and keep
up enthusiasm by publishing news from groups around the country, particularly
success stories. Further, he used his magazines to publicize his lecture tours
and revival meetings. The latter borrowed from non-Buddhist models, including
Christian groups university courses. Unsurprisingly, the message presented stressed
the key themes of Taixu's thought -- the harmony of Buddhism and modernity,
the Human Vehicle, the "essence" of the Mahayana, monastic reform,
improved Buddhist education, social work, etc. Further these domestic efforts
seem to have been well received.

International

Taixu was not content to limit his efforts to
China, however, and began to look to spread the faith in the West as well. His
motives in this seem to be twofold. First, to unite all the world "that
{Buddhism} may become a compass, as it were, for the human mind.[209] Second,
he hoped that given the trend toward Westernization in China, by influencing
the West he might in turn influence his own country. The starting point of this
project of converting the West would be the more modest aim of changing the
thinking of Western scholars regarding Buddhism.[210]

Taixu seems to have viewed unifying the Buddhist
world as an important step towards the goal of converting other nations. In
one of the

lectures given on his speaking tour of Europe
and the U.S., Taixu spoke on the "three centers" of Buddhism -- Ceylon,
Tibet, and China. Each of the centers was a vital node of its particular variety
of the Teaching -- reflecting the "three departments" from his third
panshe. Although the Lesser Vehicle lacked "the full scope of Mahayana
doctrine," esoteric Buddhism was tainted with Brahmanism, and Chinese Buddhism "[showed] signs of decline... nevertheless, the foundations [were] unshaken,
and with the collaboration of Ceylon and Tibet it should be possible to create
a world-wide center."[211] Reflecting
his panshe, in which East Asian forms of Buddhism were accorded higher
standing than other forms, China was obviously to take the leading role in this
scheme, while the other two centers were relegated to supporting roles. Taixu
didn't explicitly state the reason for or the significance of this "world-wide
center." Given the fact, however, that it is referred to by that name rather
than, for instance, "pan-Asian center" which would be more geographically
accurate, and that this passage is immediately followed by a discussion of propaganda,
it seems likely that this center is intended to serve as the foundation for
a "world-wide" missionary effort. This is supported by an earlier
statement to the East Asian Buddhist Conference in which he referred to spreading
Buddhism in the West as the "inalienable duty of Asiatic Buddhists."[212]

Taixu's efforts to unite the Buddhist world began
with his World Buddhist Conference. Though the first conference was apparently
impromptu -- Taixu was visiting Kuling and giving a few lectures, and when others,
such as Professor Ensai of Japan, and Ludwig Reichelt, arrived they also delivered
addresses -- the second was more formal. There

were official Chinese and Japanese delegations
and Reichelt again attended. Claims were also made for participation by other
famous Chinese monks and scholars as well as Westerners, though the veracity
of these claims is uncertain.[213] The participants discussed exchanges between
China and Japan, relations with Southeast Asian Buddhism, unification of the
world's Buddhists, and organizational details.[214] According to what Taixu
told Reichelt, the purpose of the conference was fivefold -- to promote the
Dharma among Asians, to lead Chinese Buddhists to conform to and influence society,
to make contact with followers of other religions, to show Christians that Buddhists
are not all immoral, ignorant, and superstitious, and to influence Western countries "because Buddhism has something very valuable to give the world."[215]

From this sprang Taixu's World Buddhist
Association, though it only ever existed on paper. Its "Chinese branch"
sent a delegation to the East Asian Buddhist Conference held in Japan in 1925,
the year after the second conference in Kuling.[216] At this conference Taixu
delivered an important theoretical paper, "On Alayavijnana,"[217]
as well as his "Statement to Asiatic Buddhists," a stirring manifesto
on Buddhism's role in, and duty to, the modern world.[218] While in Tokyo, Taixu
also took the

213. Welch,
unsurprisingly, treats them as simply false. Although his assertion that Dixian
and Yinguang, who were intellectual opponents of Taixu, could not possibly have
participated as claimed is persuasive, his claims regarding Liang Qichao and R.
F. Johnson are more problematic. Reichelt tells us that these and "other"
individuals sent "letters of regret at forced absence" [Karl L. Reichelt, "A Conference of Chinese Buddhist Leaders," Chinese Recorder
54:11 (1923): 667 (Hereafter: Conference")]. Since we do not know whether
Reichelt saw the letters and since we do know the identity of Welch's informant
in this matter and he does not mention any letters, it seems best to simply conclude
that the evidence is uncertain.

opportunity to visit many important Buddhist
institutions and speak to "eminent Buddhist scholars" including Nanjio,
Takakusu, and Suzuki.[219]

Taixu was also able to travel to the West
in 1928, where he lectured in France, England, Germany, and the U.S. He had
hoped to establish European chapters of his World Buddhist Association on this
trip, but the results were disappointing. His lectures were generally more successful.
Though given mediocre reviews in France, Taixu was well received in England
and the U.S.[220] His lectures were later published
as Lectures in Buddhism in 1928. In them he stressed Buddhism's universality
and its compatibility with modernity, discussing such familiar topics as science,
Western philosophy, and Christianity as well as modern ideals such as progress.[221]
In England in addition to his lecture dates, he met with Bertrand Russell to
discuss problems of Buddhist philosophy. In the U.S. he lectured at Columbia,
Yale, and other universities[222] and attended
an "East and West" luncheon in New York held "to promote world
peace and racial, religious, and cultural unity." There he spoke on Buddhism
as "the tolerant, receptive, universal faith which is essential to the
realization of world unity."[223]

Ironically, Taixu was next able to carry his
message of unity abroad during World War II. From November of 1939 to May of
1940, Taixu traveled to Burma, Malaya, India, and Ceylon. His trip was subsidized
by the Nationalist government because they hoped that his tour would help

223. "Urge Cultural tie with the Orient: Delegates Representing Eastern and
Western Religions Unite in Movement to Promote World Peace," New York
Times, March 6 1929.

78

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter V: Application

to drum up support for the war effort.[224] Thus
through his trips abroad and his conferences Taixu was able to begin to work
towards his ideal of a worldwide movement though he was not able to realize
that dream in his lifetime.

Though the international propaganda effort
had some basic points in common with its domestic counterpart, it also varied
in some respects. In both cases Taixu made use of modern methods and aimed his
message at the educated elites. The content of Taixu's message abroad, however,
tended to stress the universality of Buddhism and its compatibility with the
modern world, and gave less emphasis to ideas such as the Human Vehicle and
sangha reform. Apparently, Taixu felt the former themes were the most
important to make known in the world at large. Also to effectively spread the
Dharma in the West, Taixu felt that the Buddhists of the East must first be
united. To this end he held conferences and set up world organizations. These
efforts bore little fruit, but the logic behind them stands out clearly -- to
solve the problems of the world. Buddhism must be spread worldwide.

Here the logic of Taixu's application reached
its ultimate conclusions. In each area, Taixu utilized modern methods in an
attempt to institutionalize certain elements of his thought. The great emphasis
on education, both through formal education and through publications and lectures,
reflect the supreme importance of doctrine. Taixu's intended audience, the educated
and the upper classes, also reflects this. The content of his propaganda is
a logical outgrowth of his treatment of non-Buddhist forms of knowledge. The
ethical reorientation of Taixu's

thought finds expression in the emphasis on observance
of the Vinaya and preaching for monastics, the social service of the
lay societies, and the content of his propaganda. Finally, the unity among Buddhist
nations sought by Taixu reflects the scope of his panshe and the worldwide
scope of his concerns. These institutionalizations also helped to build up the
infrastructure and resources necessary to support the movement that Taixu required
to adequately address the two sets of problems that he saw in the world around
in him.

80

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter
VI: Analysis

Chapter VI

Analysis

Having completed our discussion of the three
parts of Taixu's program, we may again turn our attention to the problems that
he identified. By this point it should be clear that the steps of Taixu's program
-- reduction, harmonization, and application -- are closely related to, and
build upon, one another. Now we must ask whether they address his two sets of
problems. First, do they deal with Buddhism's superstition and otherworldliness,
with the Buddhist clergy's self-interestedness, ineffectual practice, reclusiveness,
ignorance of worldly affairs, and familialism? And second, do they deal with
the modern world's moral crisis, factionalism, and natural disasters? With a
few ambiguous exceptions that could perhaps be resolved with further investigation,
Taixu's threefold program addressed all of these problems.

Taixu's treatment of superstition as a category
is rather ambiguous, which creates some problems for analysis. Nevertheless,
Taixu clearly did deal with this problem, and the way in which he did so may
shed some light on his view of "superstition." He definitely included
idolatry, and linked this to taking bodhisattvas to be mere "idols."
Taixu's theory lays out a different understanding in which bodhisattvas are
to be seen as "great minded beings" rather than intercessory spirits
or cosmic saviors. One should not worship but emulate them, for such "great-mindedness"
is something to which all can aspire. The way to achieve this, in Taixu's view,
is by understanding the Buddhist doctrine and putting it into practice. Furthermore,
for Taixu this practice revolves around ethical

81

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

action in the social sphere and has little to
do with "idols."

Taixu's treatment of science also bears on this
problem. Taixu granted scientists authority in describing the phenomenal world
and believes that its methods can serve to correct superstition. We might expect
then that Taixu would have advocated a union of some kind. As we have seen,
Taixu did in fact make moves in this direction, such as integrating science
in his hierarchy of knowledge. He further suggested that the scientific methods
of inductive and deductive reasoning could aid the Buddhist scholar, and that "much my be expected from uniting the two methods [of science and Buddhism]."[225]

We might then further expect that Taixu
would have included science in his propaganda and educational efforts. Although
as we have seen, Taixu did lecture on science and Buddhism and ran articles
on science in Sound of the Sea Tide, except for two hours a week of psychology,
science was absent from the curriculum of his academies. This may simply have
been due to economic factors. We know that Taixu was plagued by money problems,
and psychology, lacking any lab equipment, would be a comparatively cheap science
to teach. On the other hand, this may be related to his theoretical approach
to science. Taixu accorded a good deal of merit to science but he also saw it
as firmly subordinate to Buddhism. Thus perhaps he did not regard it as important
that his students have a detailed, practical knowledge of science, so long as
they had an appreciation for it method. In the absence of any direct evidence
supporting either of these possibilities, however, we are simply left with this
incongruity.

The final way in which Taixu's thought dealt
with superstition is through the Human Vehicle. This vehicle, in Taixu's mind,
is the most appropriate expedient means for our age. As we have just mentioned,
it focuses on ethical action as practice rather than anything that might involve
idols, but it applies to this problem in another way as well. If one were to
neglect the Human vehicle and practice according to the Heavenly Vehicle one
would be "slandered as superstitious."

Taixu's phrasing here, combined with his
vague treatment of the category of "superstition" in general, suggests
some interesting possibilities. Taixu embraced the Heavenly Vehicle in his panshe
as an important part of Buddhism, and even ranked it above the Human Vehicle
in his three degrees. He also occasionally encouraged its practice, and included
it in his educational plans. Thus, Taixu's concern in this regard seems to be
with appearances. Practicing according to the Heavenly Vehicle has validity
but it may result in others viewing the practitioner as superstitious. In Taixu's
day, many held just such a view of Buddhism. One thinks of Hu Shih's polemics
against Buddhism and many Christians' accusations of idolatry. Thus perhaps
we should not be surprised that idolatry was the only element which Taixu explicitly
identified as superstitious. "Superstition" may have simply been such
a loaded word that Taixu felt it necessary to distance himself from it.

We see something similar at work in the
second problem Taixu identified with Buddhism -- otherworldliness. He connected
this problem with the Lesser Vehicle. This vehicle, like the Heavenly Vehicle,
was incorporated in Taixu's panshe above the Human Vehicle in the three "degrees," and taught in his academies. If one practiced according
to this

83

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

method, however, one would be "reviled as
negative and escapist." These sorts of accusations were also common regarding
Buddhism, and Taixu appears to have wanted to distance them from himself and
his movement. We need not necessarily, however, interpret this as a crass attempt
to improve his image or vie for "status" as Holmes Welch charges.
Except for the Bodhisattva Vehicle, all vehicles are expedients in Taixu's conception.
Given that Taixu explicitly sought to bring his message to the modernized segments
of society and that these were in fact the people who were making these sorts
of accusations, it is entirely consistent with Taixu's thought, and the Mahayana
tradition, that he should adopt the expedient means most appropriate to the
times and the intended audience.

Taixu's concerns regarding otherworldliness do
not seem to arise solely from expediency. Whereas he generally dealt with superstition
in only very general terms, Taixu linked the problem of otherworldliness specifically
to what he felt was Buddhist's lack of interest in education and social service,
two areas in which he did much theoretical and also practical work. On the theoretical
side, he addressed this problem through the Human Vehicle. The heart of this
vehicle lay in ethical action. In Taixu's thinking, this is a form of practice
which is necessarily engaged with the world, for "all practices which benefit
the masses of humanity are the karmic foundation of Buddhahood... [whereas]
neglecting and not doing them cuts off the seeds of Buddhahood."[226] This
is further supported by his application of Thusness to human society. If it
is impossible to abstract oneself from the group or to save oneself without
saving others,

as Taixu contended, then aspirants must view
their spiritual progress as being intimately linked with the well being of their
fellows.

Several points of Taixu's application relate
to the more specific problems of lack of interest in social service and education.
On the monastic side, we saw that both Taixu's earliest grandiose plan for sangha
reform, and his last more practical suggestions included instituting charitable
services, thus constructively engaging monastics with society. He achieved the
same effect in a more traditional way by requiring his students to preach and
otherwise engage with the laity. The laity, for their part, engaged in the community
through the lay societies. As we have seen a considerable portion of the resources
of these organizations were directed at social service, from education to medical
care. Thus we can see that Taixu sought to root both halves of the Buddhist
community firmly in the world.

Much the same points of Taixu's thought and program
apply to the problem of the clergy's self-interestedness. Obviously the recognition
of one's interdependence, and the practice of the Human Vehicle stand in opposition
to self-centeredness. But we might also consider here the emphasis that Taixu
placed on the Vinaya and fostering the "monastic character"
in his plans for sangha reform. Furthermore, in his second plan and in
his final series of suggestions he advocated actively removing those who could
not meet these standards. Thus Taixu's program included not only theoretical,
but also very practical ways of dealing with this issue.

The problem which was least clearly dealt with
by Taixu's program was that of ineffectual religious practice. Since Taixu did
not explain why

85

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

he thought their practice was ineffective it
is difficult to say whether it has been addressed. Taixu made some connection
between this failure and the division of monks into sects, but it is unclear
whether the connection was causal. If it was, then Taixu's emphasis on practicing
all schools as seen in his panshe's and his plan for the World Institute
of Buddhist Studies addressed this. On the other hand, the problem may have
derived from laxity, in which case we might conclude that it was dealt with
by his sangha reform. Alternatively, if it derived from the practice
itself we might conclude that it was addressed by his introduction of the human
vehicle as a new upaya. Finally, if it derived from ignorance (since Buddhas
and bodhisattvas are characterized primarily by their understanding of the doctrine),
then we might conclude that it was addressed by Taixu's program of monastic
education. Although one or more of these possibilities may have been the case,
in the absence of any direct evidence we cannot conclude that any of them actually
was the case.

The next problem, the reclusiveness of the
sangha, seems very similar to the charge that it was otherworldly. We
may say briefly, then, that Taixu's doctrine of the Human Vehicle, his ethical
thought in general, and the preaching and social service that he advocated all
address this problem. Taixu, however, also connected this accusation to a more
specific point. He claimed that this reclusiveness had led the government and
ruling classes to slight the monastic community. Thus we can see that in addition
to being a reflection of his emphasis on doctrine, Taixu's targeting of the
educated and upper classes also addressed this perceived slighting. In addition,
he had apparently cultivated good relations with the government since it financed
the Sino-Tibetan Institute and his

86

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

wartime trip to Southeast Asia. Thus, Taixu dealt
with this problem directly by reaching out to those portions of the population
that he felt failed to respect the sangha.

The problem of monastic ignorance of worldly
affairs is also dealt with in a direct manner. The logical way to deal with
ignorance is education and as we have seen this was an area that Taixu gave
a great deal of attention. We have seen that a substantial amount of time was
spent in Taixu's academies on secular subjects such as history, and geography,
which would impart a greater understanding of "worldly affairs," although
it occupied far less of his students time than their Buddhist courses. Taixu's
propaganda efforts also bear on this issue, for those who Taixu was not able
to educate directly through his academies, he sought to educate through his
lectures and magazines which often dealt with contemporary ideas and issues.

Because of this ignorance of contemporary
ideas and issues, Taixu felt, the sangha had been unable to appeal to
modern minds. He dealt with this both directly, by reaching out to those groups
most effected by modernization, and indirectly, by training his students to
do so. It is important to note here the methods that Taixu used. To appeal to
modern minds, Taixu used modern mediums. He spread the word through lecture
tours, "revival meetings," magazines, and schools which made use of
current pedagogical methods.

The final problem that Taixu identified with
Buddhism was excessive "familialism." Several points of Taixu's program
address this. Although the details of his proposals changed over the years,
each of his plans for sangha reform sought to impose a universal standard and
a

87

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

degree of centralization upon the almost completely
autonomous monasteries and temples which he saw as acting like independent clans.
The educational aspect of these plans would also bear on this by setting up
a counter-structure outside the traditional hierarchy. Rather than being trained
in their home temples, Taixu wanted monks educated in the more impersonal academies
which they would enroll in immediately after entering the sangha. In
these academies more meritocratic mechanisms were in place -- entrance was determined
by examination, and grades were awarded. The title of Dharma teacher was granted,
not for rising through the traditional, familial monastic hierarchy, but for
completing a formal education. The educational institution would thus have a
strong claim on its students which would disrupt the familial structure. However,
it is also conceivable that monk's loyalties to the academy they attended would
create similar problems. Thus this particular way of addressing the problem
is potentially problematic. On a more concrete level, the participation of the
Bodhi Society in the selection of several local abbots indicates that Taixu
sought to disperse power in this process, placing it in the hands of the broader
Buddhist community.

Given that one of the results of this problem,
according to Taixu, was private ownership of property which ought to be held
commonly by all Buddhists, we might expect to find a call for the collectivization
of monastic property. Such a call, however, is surprisingly absent. It appears
likely that Taixu never made such a proposal because it would almost certainly
have been rejected. Although this study has dealt almost exclusively with the
ideas of his mature period, i.e. after his seclusion on Putuo Shan, it is worth
noting that he entered seclusion because his early

88

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

reform ideas, which had been heavily influenced
by socialism, had been rejected. Further, each of his unimplemented plans for
sangha reform was more modest than the last. Thus the evidence suggests that
Taixu's motives in this regard were practical. For all of his plans for ideal
Buddhist institutions, Taixu wanted to make actual changes to concrete institutions.

Whereas the problems with Buddhism were to a
large degree institutional and were addressed largely by Taixu's application,
the problems with the modern world were more fundamental and were addressed
primarily by Taixu's theory. Taixu felt that in the modern world humanity's
egoistic passions ran unchecked, as seen in the first World War. The rise of
science had undercut traditional ethical systems based on a theistic worldview.
As Taixu saw it. Buddhism was compatible with science and thus, as he put it, "he who loses religion through science can learn how to find it again through
Buddhism."[227]

Taixu's system of ethics naturally relates to
the problem of factionalism as well. The ethical injunction of the Human vehicle
stands in sharp opposition to the constant struggle Taixu saw among nations,
races, and classes. Furthermore, according to Taixu's metaphysics, such factions
are ultimately empty, and therefore, it is impossible to gain anything through
such struggle. Since in his view all phenomena, including human beings and their
various factions, are bound together in the web of cause and effect, he held
that the only way to actually improve one's position was by helping one's fellows.

problem Taixu saw with the world, the unavoidable
suffering which occurs due to natural disasters. Naturally, on the more abstract
level, providing aid to those who have fallen victim to natural disaster would
fall within the ethical injunction of the Human Vehicle, but this is a problem
which Taixu dealt with on a more practical level as well. Hankou, the city where
the Right Faith Society was situated, was frequently ravaged by flood and fire
due to its location directly on the banks of the Yangzi and the wooden buildings
crowded together in some sections of town. The Right Faith Society provided
relief in such emergencies including free soup kitchens and dispatching boats
to rescue the stranded.

Good works, however, were not of themselves sufficient.
The key problem that Taixu identified with the modern world was not simply the
existence of suffering but the underlying dynamics which too often cause it
-- our egoistic passions. The problem lay in the attitudes that gave rise to
destructive behavior, therefore Taixu felt that he had to change the way in
which people saw the world and each other. For this he needed propaganda.

An outgrowth of this need was the overwhelming
importance of propaganda in his program. As we have seen, Taixu spent a great
deal of time personally engaging in these efforts. His lectures, teaching, "revival
meetings," "street chapels," conferences, and publications all
served to spread his views on issues he felt important. But he also used other
elements of his program to further this goal. He took care to train his students
in the art of preaching and brought them along on his own lecture tours where
they could both assist and observe him. The lay

90

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

societies also acted in a supporting role. They
were the actual publishers of the magazines in which he aired his views, they
often provided the venue for his lectures, and also financed most of his activities.

The sheer scope of his activities is also
an outgrowth of the importance of propaganda. As he saw it, the problems with
the world were universal problems of human nature, thus his propaganda had to
reach all people. Here too, other elements of his program served to further
this aim. Through his panshe, conferences, and trips to Japan and Southeast
Asia, he sought to unite the Buddhist world in order to spread Buddhism beyond
Asia to the West. He also prepared his students for this task by teaching them
foreign languages and sending them abroad to study. On a more theoretical level,
he consistently stressed the universality of the essence of Buddhism. A universal
conception of all phenomenon is logically as applicable in the West as in the
East. Furthermore, he applied this same principle in his harmonization to deal
with many of his potential ideological rivals including science. Western philosophy,
and socialism. In the case of Christianity, Taixu not only subordinated it in
his hierarchy of knowledge but also co-opted its institutional innovations by
borrowing from Christian models for many of his organizations and activities.
Thus he had begun laying the intellectual foundation of the missionary effort
he hoped would ease the sufferings of the world.

The sufferings of the world are a common concern
for religious thinkers and many have developed elaborate theories to address
the problem but have gone no further. Taixu, on the other hand, although he
certainly had his idealistic plans and visions, was not satisfied with merely

91

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Chapter VI: Analysis

theoretical formulations but sought to bring
about concrete change in the world. If occasionally Taixu was not entirely systematic
or clear in addressing the problems he identified, perhaps we should not be
surprised for this has been characteristic of his thought all along. He was
certainly a thinker who was concerned with the big picture first and foremost.
Though there were a few ambiguous points and a few surprising omissions, in
general Taixu's threefold plan of action did attempt to address his two sets
of problems. Thus although he may have indeed had "a flair for self-promotion"
as Holmes Welch alleged, we can see that Taixu used this flair in the service
of a coherent program and body of thought which addressed a specific set of
concerns. Certainly this offers a better explanation of why many Chinese Buddhists
today still find him compelling and significant.

92

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Appendix

Appendix:

Glossary of Romanizations and
Chinese Characters

Romanization

Characters

Translations

biguan

閉關

seclusion

canxue

參學

advanced study

Chan

禪

Chan

dao

道

Way

fa

法

Dharma

Fajie yuanjue zong

法界圓覺宗

School of the Perfect Enlightenment of
the Dharmadhatu

fashi

法師

Dharma teacher

Faxiang weishi zong

法相唯識宗

School of the Mind Only [Nature] of Dharmas

Faxing kong hui zong

法性空慧宗

School of the Wisdom [that Discerns the]
True Nature of Dharmas

Fayin

法音

Sound of the Dharma

Fazun

法尊

Fazun

Fo fa seng yuan

佛法僧園

Garden of the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

fohua

佛化

"Buddhicization"

Fojiao xiejin hui

佛教協進會

Buddhist Association

foxueyuan

佛學院

Buddhist academy

gaodeng

高等

high level

Haichaoyin

海潮音

Sound of the Sea Tide

Hankou

漢口

Hankou

Hangzhou

杭州

Hangzhou

Hanzang jiaoli yuan

漢藏教理院

Sino-Tibetan Institute

Huayan

華嚴

Huayan

Hui

慧

wisdom

ji

級

degree

ji

基

foundation

Jian seng dagang

建僧大綱

Outline for Establishing the Sangha

jiao

教

teaching

Jichan

寄禪

Jichan

Jinshan si

金山寺

Jinshan Monastery

93

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Appendix

Jue she

覺社

Bodhi Society

Jue she jikan

覺社季刊

Bodhi Society Journal

li

理

principle

lin

林

grove

Lunli goucheng

理論構成

logical constructs

Lu

律

Vinaya

Lu Peilin

呂沛林

Lü Peilin

Mi

密

Esoteric

Minnan

閩南

Minnan

minquan

民權

Democracy

minsheng

民生

People's Livelihood

minzu

民族

Nationalism

Nan Putuo si

南普陀寺

Nan Putuo Monastery

panjiao

判教

panjiao

panshe

判攝

panshe

putong

普通

ordinary

putong ke

普通課

common course

Putuo Shan

普陀山

Putuo Shan

pi

期

period

Ren cheng

人乘

Human Vehicle

Sanlun

三論

Three Treatise

Sanmin zhuyi

三民主義

Sanminism

San yin

三印

three seals

seng zhong

僧眾

monastics

Shengwen cheng

聲聞眾

Sravaka Vehicle

sheng zhong

聖眾

sages

shi

始

beginning

Shijie foxue yuan

世界佛學院

World Institute of Buddhist Studies

Taixu

太虛

Taixu

Tian cheng

天乘

Heavenly Vehicle

Tiantai

天台

Tiantai

Tiantong Si

天童寺

Tiantong Temple

Weishi

唯識

Mind Only

Weishi suocheng

唯識所成

that which is manifested by consciousness

Wuchang

武昌

Wuchang

wuliang yin ming

無量印明

limitless mudra and dharani

xi

系

department

Xiamen

廈門

Xiamen

94

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Appendix

Xian

顯

Exoteric

xian zhong

賢眾

worthies

xiang

相

character

xin

信

faith

xin zhong

信眾

believers

xing

行

practice

xing

性

nature

xiu sheng changuan

修勝禪觀

practicing surpassing meditation

Yangzheng foxueyuan

養正佛學院

Buddhist Academy for Fostering Orthodoxy

Yanjiupai

研究派

research schools

Yi yin ming

一印明

one mudra and dharani

Yi shi xiang

一實相

bhutathata

Yinyuan suocheng

因緣所成

that which is produced by causes

Yongfeng Si

永豐寺

Yongfeng Temple

yuanxing

原性

original nature

zheng

證

realization

Zhengli sengjia zhidu lun

整理僧伽制度論

On Reform of the Sangha System

Zhengxin hui

正信會

Right Faith Society

zhenru

真如

Thusness

zhi

智

Knowledge

zhiguan

止觀

zhiguan

zhishi diaocheng

知識彫成

intellectual symbolic constructs

zhong

終

end

Zhongguan

中觀

Zhongguan

Zhonglun xing jiao

中觀性教

Zhonglun xing jiao

Zhong mofan conglin

眾模範叢林

model monasteries

zhuanxiu ke

專修課

specialized course

zong

宗

zong

zong zhuanxiu conglin

宗專修叢林

special monasteries

zongjiao

宗教

religion

95

Taixu: To Renew Buddhism and Save
the Modern World

Bibliography

Bibliography

Works in English

Blofeld, John

The Jewel in the Lotus: An Outline of
Present Day Buddhism in China. London: Sidgwick and Jackson 1948.